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A CHORUS OF FAITH 



Seven Great Teachers 
OF Religion 



"The Lovers of the Light are One." 



A Series of Sermon-Lectures 

A Contribution to the Parliament 
OF Religion, by 

JENKIN LLOYD JONES 

I. Moses, the Hebrew Law-Giver 

II. Zoroaster, the Prophet of Industry 

III. Confucius, the Prophet of Politics 

IV. Buddha, the Light of Asia 

V. Sokrates, the Prophet of Reason 

VI. Jesus, the Founder of Christianity 

VII. Mohammed, the Prophet of Arabia 



ID Cts. Each; in Neat Case, 75 Cts. per Set 



A CHORUS OF FAITH 



AS HEARD IN THE 



lrvXd:.PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS, (%1<^^^^J^' 



CHICAGO, SEPT. 10-27, 1893 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 



JENKIN LLOYD JONES 



CHICAGO 

THE UNITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1893 



^^r 



v/*-^ 

1?^^ 



Copyright 1893 

BY 

JENKIN LLOYD JONES 



Transfer 
Engineers School Ub^^ 
June 29. 1931 



fl. R. DONNELLEY & SONS CO., CHICAGO 



TO THE LABORERS 

WHO ARE MAKING THE GREAT PROPHECY HISTORY; THE 

BELIEVERS IN THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION OF 

CHARACTER, THE CHURCH OF 

HUMANITY 



CONTENTS. 



Poem, Prelude — W C. Gannett, - - - . lo 

Introduction — Jenkin Lloyd Jones, - - - - ii 

Greeting : 

Poem— J. G. Whittier, 24 

Extracts, --25 

Harmony of the Prophets : 

Poem — Samuel Longfellow, 66 

Extracts, - - - 67 

Holy Bibles : 

Poem — R. W. Emerson, - - - - - 1 00 

Extracts, -.------- loi 

Unity in Ethics: 

Poem — Leigh Hunt, 126 

Extracts, 127 

Brotherhood : 

Poem — Lewis Morris, - - - - - - 162 

Extracts, --------- 163 

The Soul : 

Poem — David A. Wasson, - - - - - 192 

Extracts, - - -193 

The Thought of God : 

Poem — F. L. Hosmer, 222 

Extracts, - - 223 

The Crowning Day : 

Poem — -Robert Browning, . . - - 244 

Extracts, - 245 

Farewell : 

Poem — Walt Whitman, ----- 284 

Extracts, 285 

7 



8 (tonttnt^. 

Appendix : 

A. Extract from first call, 319 

B. Objections to the Parliament, . - . - 

I. Letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury, 320 

II. Joseph Cook's challenge, - - - 321 

III. Bishop Coxe's protest, - - - - 323 

C. A Parliament at Benares, . . . - . 326 

D. Philip Schaff, in Memoriam, - - - 327 
Poem, PosTLUDE — John C. Learned, . . - _ 328 
Index, 329 



Piyadasi honors all forms of faith and enjoins reverence for 
one's own faith and no reviling nor injury to that of others. Let 
the reverence as shown in such and such a manner as is suited to 
the difference of belief. For he who in some way honors his own 
religion and reviles that of others throws difficulties in the way of 
his own religion ; this, his conduct cannot be right. 

From lithic tablets erected by the Emperor of Asoka^ after the 
Parliament of Religions held at Patali-Putra. — 241 B.C. 

And they shall come from the east and west ; and from the 
north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. — -Jesus. 



"THESE WAIT ALL UPON THEE." 

Bring, O Morn, thy music ! Bring, O Night, thy hushes ! 

Oceans, laugh the rapture to the storm-clouds coursing 
free! 
Suns and stars are singing. Thou art our Creator, 

Thou wert, and art, and evermore shalt be ! 

Joy and Pain, thy creatures, praise thee, Mighty Giver ! 

Dumb the prayers are rising in thy beast and bird and 
tree. 
Lo ! they praise and vanish, vanish at thy bidding, 

Thou wert, and art, and evermore shalt be ! 

Light us ! lead us ! love us ! cry thy groping nations, 

Pleading in the thousand tongues, but calling only thee, 

Weaving blindly out one holy, happy purpose, 
Thou wert, and art, and evermore shalt be ! 

Life nor death can part us, O thou Love eternal. 

Shepherd of the wandering star and wayward souls that 
flee! 

Homeward draws the spirit to thy Spirit yearning, 
Who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be ! 

W. C. Gannett. 



INTRODUCTION. ^.lJ.w^ 

This compilation contains one hundred and sixty- 
seven extracts from one hundred and fifteen different 
authors, all of them taken from the utterances of the 
main Parliament. It is to be regretted that not even 
the daily papers were able to give any considerable 
space to the various denominational and other side 
congresses where many noble things were said. If 
these denominational congresses are ever adequately 
reported there will be offered another rich field from 
which to compile a second "Chorus of Faith." 

This compilation is a book with a purpose. The 
compilers have no desire to conceal the fact, made 
obvious by the most casual examination, that those 
extracts have been taken that point to a much needed 
lesson. They have selected such passages as indicate 
the essential unity of all religious faiths at their best, 
the fundamental harmony in human nature made ap- 
parent by the noblest utterances of its representatives. 
They are aware that these selections may seem to 
prove too much. The reader will not forget that 
there were serious differences as well as profound 
harmonies, and that not all the speakers spoke up to 
these extracts. Still less is it to be expected that the 
speakers always lived up to these high standards. There 
were occasional lapses from the spirit of courtesy here 
indicated, and frequent failures to maintain the stand- 

II 



»2 a Otijorug of jFaitft. 

ard of clearness and eloquence aimed at in this com- 
pilation. Of course, in the seventeen days of three 
sessions each, each session averaging more than two 
hours and a half, there were some dreary stretches of 
the commonplace. But, in the main, the interest of 
the great audiences, which always taxed, and fre- 
quently overflowed, the limits of Columbus Hall, 
accommodating about three thousand people, was 
maintained to the end. Indeed, in estimating the 
significance of the Parliament, the phenomenal listen- 
ing power, the staying quality of the audience, the 
persistent eagerness of the throng under circumstances 
peculiarly exhaustive, expensive, and distracting must 
be taken into consideration. The variety of interest, 
faiths, rank, races, and locations represented in the 
audience was, to say the least, as great as that found 
on the platform. 

The reader will also remember, in justice to the 
speakers, that this is a book of extracts. It does not 
attempt to give complete arguments. The extracts 
are made from the necessarily hasty, but, in the main, 
remarkably full and satisfactory reports which ap- 
peared from day to day in the Chicago Herald. To 
this paper due acknowledgement is here made. 

This little book will not take the place of the larger 
two-volume history of the Parliament edited by Dr. 
John Henry Barrows, whose eminent service as chair- 
man of the committee so peculiarly qualified him to 
be the historian of the great occasion. But even this 
larger two-volume history will necessitate such con- 
densation and compilation as will only increase the 
demand for that full verbatim reproduction of the 



Itttroiructitin. ^3 



entire proceedings which we hope the Directors of the 
Columbian Exposition, aided by the United States 
government, will give to the world. Such a report of 
the Parliament, together with associate volumes con- 
taining the proceedings of the various congresses held 
under the auspices of the World's Congress Auxiliary 
during the six months of the Exposition, would pre- 
sent in encyclopedic form such a popular presentation 
of human progress up to date as could be found in no 
other form. 

Confessedly inadequate and unsatisfactory as these 
selections are, the compilers hope that they are suffi- 
cient to prove to many minds the reality of the uni- 
versal brotherhood herein confessed; and that under 
its simple inspiration the spiritual life grows. Where 
kindliness is, piety must be. Where hospitality 
thrives, reverence triumphs. The human heart left 
free to seek its own in the unfenced field of humanity 
grows joyous, and the human mind finds new spon- 
taneity; it becomes alert, acquisitive. At this Parlia- 
ment of religion the Brahmin forgot his caste and the 
Catholic was chiefly conscious of his catholicity. Here 
the Presbyterian laid aside his creed, the Baptist rose 
above his close communion tenet, the Methodist tun- 
neled under his "Discipline." All these came there 
simply as men conscious of their ignorance, conscious 
also of an intensified potency and of an increasing 
hunger for companionship. It was plain to see that 
the priests and preachers on the platform of Colum- 
bus Hall were having an exceedingly good time. The 
soul had escaped its conventional fetters, laid aside 
its ecclesiastical trumpery and had gone out to play 



in the open fields of God. The spirits of men and 
women were out walking on the hilltops of human 
nature. They were having a good time because they 
had all escaped barriers and fetters peculiar to them. 
Next to the gorgeously bedecked and jolly Bishop of 
Zante, of the Greek Church, sat his reverence Bishop 
Shibata, of the Shinto faith of Japan, who was probably 
the most elaborately harnessed figure on the plat- 
form. How far away he looked in his pontifical 
robes! How insular he seemed wrapped in his rich 
Japanese silk and doomed to the silence of a foreign 
speech. Very conventional seemed the benedictions 
which he dropped upon the audience with the cedar 
paddle he reverently carried in both hands, symboliz- 
ing some sanctity we knew not of, which he evidently 
did not feel free to discard. But, as Dr. Barrows 
read for him his translated address, in which he told us 
how "fourteen years ago he had told his people his 
longing for such a friendly meeting as this," his 
thirst for that " fraternity that would put an end to 
war, that fearlessness in investigating the truth of the 
universe that would be instrumental in uniting all the 
religions of the world, bringing hostile nations into 
peaceful relations by the way of perfect justice," 
that vast audience soon forgot the priest as they 
discovered the man. They looked beneath his satin 
vestments and found his human heart. The great 
wave of applause from the risen audience was too 
much for him to handle with his ecclesiastical paddle. 
It was an impressive moment when, yielding to a 
spontaneous impulse he threw away his paddle and 
reached out his naked non-official hands towards his 



Jntrotruction. ^5 



brethren and sisters, and he had not hands enough. 
I hope the newspaper men were right when they said 
that the sisters* cheeks were kissed, as I know some of 
the brethren's were, for it was the triumph of man, 
not the man. It was the human soul unsexed as it 
was unseated. It was the child of love and grief, the 
victim of pains and disappointments, the bearer of 
hopes, the servant of ideals that was greeted and 
greeting. 

If nothing else is left of the Parliament there 
will be left this sweet revelation of brotherhood. If 
ignorance and narrowness should still continue to 
blind the soul to the beauty of other faiths than its 
own, if the heart of Christendom should continue to 
yield no place for Confucius or Buddha, and their 
devotees still distrust or deny the spiritual loftiness 
of Jesus, yet those who attended the meetings of last 
September will send their hearts around the globe to 
find and to hold the individuals they there learned to 
respect and to love. The Parliament, if it has 
proved nothing else, has proved what a splendid 
thing human nature is to build a religious fellow- 
ship upon. .Who cares for a creed which a prophet 
like Mozoomdar cannot sign? Who wants a church 
that has no room in it for a Pagan like Dharmapala? 
Who would insult the memory of Jesus by excluding 
from a so-called " Lord's table " those who served 
his brothers and sisters in the land of the cherry 
blossoms, the beautiful isles of the Pacific — those 
gentle teachers, Hirai, and his mild and cultivated 
associates? Having listened to the dignified Pung 
Quang Yu we can never again abuse the Chinese 



i6 a (iti)oxm of jTaiti). 

with as stupid a conscience. Having heard Bishop 
Arnett and Prince Massaquoi, it will be harder than 
ever to spell negro with two "g's." The Parliament 
demonstrated the essential piety of Terrence, when 
he said, " I deem nothing foreign that is human." 

The second unity made perceptible at this Parlia- 
ment was the unity of the prophecy, the harmony of 
the prophets. Thousands were made to feel by di- 
rect contact, thousands more will come to feel through 
the study of its triumphs, that the message of all the 
great teachers of religion is essentially the same. 
Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Moses, Zoroaster, Sokrates 
and Mohammed taught, not so many different ways to 
God, but the same way, the only way, the way of 
service, the lonely way of truth- seeking, the homely 
way of loving and helping. Their followers in- 
vented other ways, of ritual and sacrament, of creed 
and confession, but in the final tests these short cuts 
of lesser minds all prove either supplementary or 
useless. The soul must travel the one highway, the 
way of character, the road of conduct, the path of 
morals. This alone brings the beatitudes of life. 

Traveling this road we come to the third unity 
that bound together the Parliament, made it a coher- 
ent and cohesive body: the unity of reverence, the 
sense of the mysterious in the infinite, the thought of 
God. There was but one faith prevading the Parlia- 
ment except when some one began to number his di- 
vinities or to count the attributes of his deity, then 
disintegration was imminent. Perhaps the least fruit- 
ful day of the Parliament was the one set apart for 
the discussion of th^ diyine nature. Let it be con- 



Stttroirtictiott. 17 



fessed that was rather a dry day. The Parliament 
was most triumphant when it took God for granted. 
The soul can be trusted on its Godward side if it is 
only developed on its manward side. Give the spirit 
its freedom and it will fast enough use its wings. 
Teach the mind to think and it will soon enough dis- 
cover that it is " thinking God's thoughts after Him." 

To recapitulate: The Parliament was at least a 
cumulative revelation of the common bonds of 
human nature, common love of nobility, common de- 
pendence on the great revealers of history, — loyalty 
to the leaders of the race. And, lastly, in propor- 
tion as these two unities are realized, there comes the 
common sense of the divine, the nestling of the 
human close to the heart of God. 

The Parliament was not without its discordant 
notes. It is not going to put an end to bigotry. 
There are those who distrusted the project and who 
regret the triumph. It is but fair to recognize that 
fact. In the appendix to this book we print the most 
famous objections to the Parliament and its outcome. 
But the Parliament has made it easier for a man to 
think his own thoughts, to love truth and to follow it 
even though it cross the barriers of an adopted creed. 
It will make men more willing to reach hands across 
denominational lines into other church folds. It will 
make it harder for an honest man to subscribe to a 
creed he does not approve. It will make it more 
cowardly for a preacher to think one thing in the 
study and to imply a different thing in the pulpit. 
It will make it more dishonorable than ever for a man 



i8 a at^oxm of S^itff. 

to support the church that he does not believe in, or 
to withhold his support from the church he does 
believe in. Christianity was thrown on the defensive 
on the floors of the Parliament. To borrow a World's 
Fair phrase, the so-called Pagans, " made the best 
exhibit." They were the most in demand. They 
enkindled the greatest enthusiasm. This is not 
wholly explained by the fact of novelty. Seventeen 
days would have exhausted the novelty of white and 
saffron robes had there not been, under these robes, 
minds skilled to thought, spirits that probed through 
things local and transient to things universal and 
eternal. The Japanese won the American hearts in 
spite of their garb, their foreign tongue, and their so- 
called " heathen " antecedents. The representatives 
of the Orient triumphed over the audience by speak- 
ing unwelcome truths, telling them things they did 
not like to hear. These men triumphed because they 
left much of their baggage at home. The ecclesias- 
ticism, the forms and the dogmas of these religions 
were not worth paying freight on from home, so they 
left them behind. They came as prophets and not as 
priests. They came to proclaim the universals, the 
things we hold in common. They came to show us 
that we held no monopoly upon the superlative things 
of the soul. They found us, unfortunately, in the 
midst of all our baggage, overlaid by our secondary 
things. Christianity was on the defensive only in so 
far as it tried to guard its peculiar, and what it may 
claim as exclusive prerogatives, when it tried to jus- 
tify that which it ought to amend, and should be 
ashamed of. Christianity as the " only revealed relig- 



intrnirurtidn* 19 



ion," the " one true religion " set over against a " false 
religion " found itself in straightened circumstances 
at the Parliament. Its boast was denied in the most 
emphatic way such a denial could come. The claim 
was disproved by men who by their radiant faces, 
enkindled words and blameless lives, proved that they, 
too, were inside of the Kingdom of God, partakers of 
his righteousness, though still outside the traditions 
and dogmas of Christianity. Christianity as one o! 
the religious forces in the world, wrestling with error 
and struggling with crime, quickening hearts with 
love, nerving souls to do the right, has nothing to 
fear, but much, very much, to gain from this Parlia- 
ment. It will grow strong by increasing its modesty; 
grow efficient by concentrating its forces and discov- 
ering its true enemies. Christianity as the gospel of 
love trying to reduce the hates of the world, as the 
gospel of light trying to reduce the ignorance of the 
world, as a progressive religion trying to appropriate 
the discoveries of science, the triumphs of commerce, 
and the mechanic arts, has received a magnificent 
impetus in this Parliament. So also has Buddhism as 
a religion of love, gentleness and service. And the 
same is true of Brahminism and all the others. These 
messengers from Japan, China, and India will go back 
with a larger conception of the work which awaits 
them. We may be sure they will put a more univer- 
sal accent into their preaching, more progressive cour- 
age into their practice. 

Jesus, the blessed friend of sinners, the peasant 
prophet of righteousness, the simple priest of charac- 
ter, the man illuminated and illuminating in the ser^ 



20 a orijorus; of Jfaitll). 

mon on the mount, the golden rule, the matchless 
parables of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son, 
was magnificently honored at the Parliament. His 
fame was immeasurably extended and his power 
increased. But the Christ of dogma, the Christ of a 
"scheme of salvation," of a vindictive soul-damning 
god-head was threatened. There was little place on 
that platform for any atoning blood that will snatch a 
murderous and thieving Christian into heaven and 
plunge an honest, life-venerating pagan into hell. 
Jesus, one of the saviors of the world, the noblest, as 
it seems to me, of that noble brotherhood, the spirit- 
ual leaders of the race, remains made more near and 
dear by this fraternity of religions. But Jesus, as 
"The Saviour of the World," who, by miraculous 
endowment or supernatural appointment, is to sup- 
plant all other teachers and overthrow their work, will 
find but little endorsement for such a claim in the 
thought or feeling that will grow out of the Parliament 
of Religions. 

What of results ? I look for no revolution in 
religious thought or institutions ; but there will come 
a more rapid evolution of both. Existing churches 
will remain, but their emphasis will be changed more 
and more from dogma to deed, from profession to 
practice. From out their creed-bound walls will come 
an ever-increasing throng, upon whose brows will rest 
the radiance of the sunrise ; whose hearts will glow 
with the fervid heat of the Orient intensified by the 
scientific convictions of the Occident. These people 
will demand a church that will be as inclusive in its 



Jntroirurtinn, 21 



spirit as the Parliament. The Parliament will teach 
people that there is an Universal Religion. This 
must have its teachers and it will have its churches. 
This universal religion is not made of the shreds and 
tatters of other religions. It is not a patchwork of 
pieces cut out of other faiths, but it is founded on 
those things which all religions hold in common : the 
hunger of the heart for comradeship, the thirst of 
mind for truth, the passion of the soul for usefulness. 
In morality the voices of the prophets blend and the 
chorus is to become audible throughout the world. In 
ethics all the religions meet. Gentleness is every- 
where and always a gospel. Character is always rev- 
elation. All writings that make for it are Scripture. 
It is great to have lived to have seen this triumph. 
But it will not do to forget that "one swallow does 
not make a summer." On the crest of a great oppor- 
tunity, borne by a splendid inspiration, focalized at 
the quadro-centennial celebration of the discovery of 
a world, it has been possible to realize a world's Pente- 
cost for seventeen days. But it took unnumbered 
centuries and uncounted martyrs to prepare for this 
festival of the spirit. The renunciation of Buddha, 
the cup of hemlock at Athens, and the bitterness of 
Calvary, together with the countless love-offerings and 
life-sacrifices inspired by these, all helped to make 
the triumph witnessed in Chicago in September, 
1893, a triumph compared with which the councils of 
Nicea, of Dort, Trent, and all the rest of them are 
secondary and unimportant. They were local ; this 
universal. They resulted in schism ; this made for 
unity. They inspired disputes, emphasized differ- 



22 a (tfioxm of Jfaiti^. 

ences ; this rose above disputes and invited harmony. 
That it is to have immeasureable results for good I 
firmly believe, but not without our strivings and our 
self-sacrifices. After all the lesson most needed is 
the lesson of self-denial, consecration, and devotion 
to an ideal that our pilgrim-guests enforced by their 
practice more than by their precept. 

If this little book will in any measure inspire such 
practices its publication will be justified and the labors 
of the compilers will be amply rewarded. 

J. L1.J. 

Chicago, December 25, 1893. 



GREETING. 



23 



Sound over all waters, reach out from all lands, 
The chorus of voices, the clasping of hands ; 

With glad jubilations 

Bring hope to the nations ! 
The dark night is ending and dawn has begun ; 
Rise, hope of the ages, arise like the sun. 

All speech flow to music, all hearts beat as one! 

Sing the bridal of nations ! with chorals of love 
Sing out the war-vulture and sing in the dove. 
Till the hearts of the people keep time in accord 
And the voice of the world is the voice of the Lord ! 

Clasp hands of the nations 

In strong gratulations : 
The dark night is ending and dawn has begun ; 
Rise, hope of the ages, arise like the sun. 

All speech flow to music, all hearts beat as one! 

Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace ; 

East, west, north, and south let the long quarrel cease 

Hark ! joining in chorus 

The heavens bend o'er us ! 
The dark night is ending and dawn has begun ; 
Rise, hope of the ages, arise like the sun. 

All speech flow to music, all hearts beat as one! 

John G. Whittier. 



24: 



GREETING. 



The opening meeting was a memorable one in 
many respects. Picturesque to a high degree in the 
variety of costumes, hues, and nationalities were the 
representatives that crowded the platforms. There 
was to be seen the brilliant robes of eminent prelates 
in the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches as well 
as those of non-Christian religions alongside of the 
plain Quaker garb and civic costumes. The audience 
that crowded every available inch of space looked into 
faces ranging from clearest white to deepest black. 
All climates were there represented. The range of 
thought was as wide as the range of race. There were 
believers in the Divine Unity, the Divine Trinity, and 
the Divine Multiplicity. Brahminism, Buddhism, 
Confucianism, Parsiism, Shintoism, Mohammedanism, 
as well as the complexities of Christendom were 
represented by those who were prepared to interpret 
them from the inside. For once at least there was to 
be a comparison of view when each faith was to be 
measured by its friends, interpreted by its devotees. 
In the face of all this diversity the unity of that meet- 
ing was a most palpable fact. The fellowship was not 
feigned ; the enthusiasm was not assumed. Over and 
over again the throng broke into tumultuous applause. 
The waving of handkerchiefs, the mingling of tears 
and of smiles combined to make a scene never to be 

25 



2<5 a (tftoxm of S^itif. 

forgotten by those who participated in the opening 
meeting. The following contains essentially the 
addresses made on that occasion in the order given. 
But much is lost in the instructive and stimulating 
introductions and the exchange of cordialities which 
were not reportable. 

Worshipers of God and Lovers 
J^^t-Z-^-vc*.^-^^^^* ^tUttteg. OF Man: — Let us rejoice that we have 
^' lived to see this glorious day ; let us 

give thanks to the Eternal God, whose mercy endureth 
forever, that we are permitted to take part in the solemn 
and majestic event of a world's congress of religions. 
The importance of this event cannot be overestimated. 
Its influence on the future relations of the various 
races of men cannot be too highly esteemed. 

If this congress shall faithfully execute the duties 
with which it has been charged it will become a joy of 
the whole earth and stand in human history like a 
new Mount Zion, crowned with glory and making the 
actual beginning of a new epoch of brotherhood and 
peace. 

For when the religious faiths of the world recognize 
each other as brothers, children of one Father whom 
all profess to love and serve, then, and not till then, 
will the nations of the earth yield to the spirit of con- 
cord and learn war no more. 

In this congress the word "religion" means the 
love and worship of God and the love and service of 
man. We believe the scripture, " Of a truth God is 
no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that 
feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of 



Greeting. ^7 

him." We come together in mutual confidence and 
respect, without the least surrender or compromise of 
anything which we respectively believe to be truth or 
duty, with the hope that mutual acquaintance and a 
free and sincere interchange of views on the great 
questions of eternal life and human conduct will be 
mutually beneficial. 

The religious faiths of the world have most 
seriously misunderstood and misjudged each other, 
from the use of words in meanings radically different 
from those which they were intended to bear, and 
from a disregard of the distinctions between appear- 
ances and facts; between signs and symbols and the 
things signified and represented. Such errors it is 
hoped that this congress will do much to correct and 
to render hereafter impossible. 

At first the proposal of a world's congress of 
religions seemed impracticable. It was said that the 
religions had never met but in conflict, and that a 
different result could not be expected now. A com- 
mittee of organization was, nevertheless, appointed 
to make the necessary arrangements. This com- 
mittee was composed of representatives of sixteen 
different religious bodies. Rev. Dr. John Henry 
Barrows was made chairman. How zealously and 
efficiently he has performed the great work committed 
to his hands this congress is a sufficient witness. 

The preliminary address of the committee, pre- 
pared by him and sent throughout the world, elicited 
the most gratifying responses, and proved that the 
proposed congress was not only practicable, but also 
that it was most earnestly demanded by the needs of 



28 a (!ti)(iru^ of jFaitf). 

the present age. The religious leaders of many 
lands, hungering and thirsting for a larger righteous- 
ness, gave the proposal their benedictions and prom- 
ised the congress their active co-operation and 
support. 

. The programme for the religious congresses of 
1893 constitutes what may with perfect propriety be 
designated as one of the most remarkable publica- 
tions of the century. The programme of this general 
Parliament of Religions directly represents England, 
Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany, 
Russia, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, India, Japan, 
China, Ceylon, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, and the 
American states, and indirectly includes many other 
countries. This remarkable programme presents, 
among other great themes to be considered in this 
congress. Theism, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Hin- 
duism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, 
Zoroastrianism, Catholicism, the Greek Church, 
Protestantism in many forms, and also refers to the 
nature and influence of other religious systems. 

This programme also announces for presentation 
the great subjects of revelation, immortality, the 
incarnation of God, the universal elements in religion, 
the ethical unity of different religious systems, the 
relations of religion to morals, marriage, education, 
science, philosophy, evolution, music, labor, govern- 
ment, peace and war, and many other themes of 
absorbing interest. The distinguished leaders of 
human progress by whom these great topics will be 
presented constitute an unparalleled galaxy of emi- 



©reeting. 29 

neJt names, but we may not pause to call the illus- 
trious roll. 

To this more than imperial feast, I bid you wel- 
come ! 

We meet on the mountain height of absolute 
respect for the religious convictions of each other 
and an earnest desire for a better knowledge of the 
consolations which other forms of faith than our own 
offer to their devotees. The very basis of our convo- 
cation is the idea that the representatives of each 
religion sincerely believe that it is the truest and the 
best of all ; and that they will, therefore, hear with 
perfect candor and without fear the convictions of 
other sincere souls on the great questions of the 
immortal life. 

Without controversy, or any attempt to pronounce 
judgment upon any matter of faith or worship or 
religious opinion, we seek a better knowledge of the 
religious condition of all mankind, with an earnest 
desire to be useful. to each other and to all others who 
love truth and righteousness. 

This day the sun of a new era of religious peace 
and progress rises over the world, dispelling the dark 
clouds of sectarian strife. This day a new flower 
blooms in the gardens of religious thought, filling the 
air with its exquisite perfume. This day a new fra- 
ternity is born into the world of human progress, to 
aid in the upbuilding of the kingdom of God in the 
hearts of men. Era and flower and fraternity bear 
one name. It is a name which will gladden the 
hearts of those who worship God and love man in 



30 a atf)ovu^ of jFaiti), 

every clime. Those who hear its music joyfully echo 
it back to sun and flower. 

It is the Brotherhood of Religions. 

In this name I welcome the first Parliament of the 
Religions of the world. 

. * • Mr. President and 

/rt.-ip*'^M^ (ttijairman I3arroto0. Friends : — if my heart did 

not overflow with cordial 
welcome at this hour, which promises to be a great 
moment in history, it would be because I had lost the 
spirit of manhood and had been forsaken by the spirit 
of God. The whitest snow on the sacred mount of 
Japan, the clearest water springing from the sacred 
fountains of India are not more pure and bright than 
the joy of my heart and of many hearts here that this 
day has dawned in the annals of time, and that from 
the farthest isles of Asia; from India, mother of 
religions; from Europe, the great teacher of civiliza- 
tion; from the shores on which breaks the "long wash 
of Australasian seas"; that from neighboring lands 
and from all parts of this republic which we love to 
contemplate as the land of earth's brightest future, 
you have come here at our invitation in the expecta- 
tion that the world's first Parliament of Religions must 
prove an event of race-wide and perpetual signifi- 
cance. 

For more than two years the general committee, 
which I have the honor to represent, working together 
in unbroken harmony, and presenting the picture of 
prophecy of a united Christendom, have carried on 
their arduous and sometimes appalling task in happy 



©reeting. 31 

anticipation of this golden hour. Your coming has 
constantly been in our thoughts and hopes and fervent 
prayers. I rejoice that your long voyages and jour- 
neys are over, and that here, in this young capital of 
our western civilization, you find men eager for truth, 
sympathetic with the spirit of universal human brother- 
hood, and loyal, I believe, to the- highest they know, 
glad and grateful to Almighty God that they see your 
faces and are to hear your words. 

Welcome, most welcome, O wise men of the East 
and of the West! May the star which has led you 
hither be like unto that luminary which guided the 
men of old, and may this meeting by the inland sea 
of a new continent be blessed of heaven to the redemp- 
tion of men from error and from sin and despair. 

Were it decreed that our sessions should end this 
day, the truthful historian would say that the idea 
which has inspired and led this movement, the idea 
whose beauty and force have drawn you through these 
many thousand miles of travel, that this idea has been 
so flashed before the eyes of men that they will not 
forget it, and that our meeting this morning has be- 
come a new, great fact in the historic evolution of the 
race, a fact which will not be obliterated. 

Welcome, one and all, thrice welcome to the world's 
first Parliament of Religions. Welcome to the men 
and women of Israel, the standing miracle of nations 
and religions. Welcome to the disciples of Prince 
Siddartha,the many millions who cherish in their heart 
Lord Buddha as the Light of Asia. Welcome to the 
high priest of the national religion of Japan. This 
city has every reason to be grateful to the enlightened 



32 



a (t\)oxm of jFaiti^, 



ruler of the sunrise kingdom. Welcome to the men 
of India and all faiths. Welcome to all the disciples of 
Christ. And may God's blessing abide in our council 
and extend to the twelve hundred millions of human 
beings, the representatives of whose faiths I address 
at this moment. 






The privilege has been given me of 
jFeeiiatt, giving greeting in the name of the Cath- 
olic Church to the members of the Par- 
liament of Religions. Surely we all regard it as a 
time and a day of the highest interest, for we have 
here the commencement of an assembly unique in the 
history of the world. One of the representatives from 
the ancient East has mentioned that his king in early 
days held a meeting like this, but certainly the mod- 
ern and historical world has had no such thing. Men 
have come from distant lands, from many shores. 
They represent many types of race. They represent 
many forms of faith: some from the distant East, rep- 
resenting its remote antiquity; some from the islands 
and continents of the West. In all there is a great 
diversity of opinion, but in all there is a great, high 
motive. 

Of all the things that our city has seen and heard 
during these passing months the highest and the 
greatest is now to be presented to it. For earnest 
men, learned and eloquent men of different faiths, 
have come to speak and to tell us of those things that 
of all are of the highest and deepest interest to us all. 
We are interested in material things; we are interested 
in beautiful things. We admire the wonders of that 



©Greeting. 33 

new city that has sprung up on the southern end of 
our great City of Chicago; but when learned men, 
men representing the thought of the world on relig- 
ion, come to tell us of God and of his truth, and of 
life and of death, and of immortality and of justice, 
and of goodness and of charity, then we listen to what 
will surpass infinitely whatever the most learned or 
most able men can tell us of material things. 

Those men that have come together will tell of 
their systems of faith, without, as has been said by 
Doctor Barrows, one atom of surrender of what each 
one believes to be the truth for him. No doubt it will 
be of exceeding interest, but whatever may be said in 
the end, when all is spoken, there will be at least one 
great result; because no matter how we may differ in 
faith or in religion, there is one thing that is common 
to us all, and that is a common humanity. And those 
men representing the races and the faiths of the 
world, meeting together and talking together and see- 
mg one another, will have for each other in the end a 
sincere respect and reverence and a cordial and fra- 
ternal feeling of friendship. As the privilege which 
I prize very much has been given to me, I bid them 
all in my own name and of that I represent a most 
cordial welcome. 

I would be wanting in my duty as a i/ujvu.tfwwv 
^ithon^. minister of the Catholic Church if I did {2a>^-^-^^ 

not say that it is our desire to present the 

claims of the Catholic Church to the observation and, 

if possible, to the acceptance of every right-minded 

man that will listen to us. But we appeal only to the 

3 



34 a atJ)oru!5 of dFaiti^. 

tribunal of conscience and of intellect. I feel that in 
possessing my faith I possess a treasure compared 
with which all the treasures of this world are but dross, 
and, instead of hiding those treasures in my own 
coverts, I would like to share them with others, espe- 
cially as I am none the poorer in making others the 
richer. Though we do not agree in matters of faith, 
as the most reverend archbishop of Chicago has said, 
thanks be to God there is one platform on which we 
all stand united. It is the platform of charity, of 
humanity and of benevolence. Jesus Christ is our 
brother. 

We have a beautiful lesson given to us in the gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ — that beautiful parable of the good 
Samaritan — which we all oug-ht to follow. We know 
that the good Samaritan rendered assistance to a dying 
man and bandaged his wounds. The Samaritan was 
his enemy in religion and in faith, his enemy in 
nationality and his enemy even in social life. That 
is the model that we all ought to follow. Let no man 
say that he cannot serve his brother. Let no man say, 
" Am I my brother's keeper ? " That was the language 
of Cain; and I say to you all here to-day, no matter 
what may be your faith, that you are and you ought 
to be your brother's keeper. What would become of 
us Christians to-day if Christ the Lord had said, "Am 
I my brother's keeper?" Never do we perform an 
act so pleasing to God as when we extend the right 
hand of fellowship and of practical love to a suffering 
member. Never do we approach nearer to our model 
than when we cause the sunlight of heaven to beam 
upon a darkened soul ; never do we prove ourselves 



iSreeting. 35 

more worthy to be called children of God our father 
than we cause the flowers of joy and of gladness to 
grow up in the hearts that were dark and dreary and 
barren and desolate before. 

For, as the apostle has said, " Religion pure and 
undefiled before God and the father is this : To visit 
the orphan and the fatherless and the widow in their 
tribulations, and to keep one's self unspotted frona 
this world." 

I am strangely moved as I stand upon Llawc-aaAIZ. 
(Ei)d[ptn- this platform and attempt to realize what 
it means that you all are here from so many 
lands,representing so many and widely-differing phases 
of religious thought and life, and what it means that I 
am here in the midst of this unique assemblage to 
represent womanhood and woman's part in all. The 
Parliament which assembles in Chicago this morning 
is the grandest and most significant convocation ever 
gathered in the name of religion on the face of this 
earth. 

But this great Parliament of Religions appeals to all 
the people of the civilized world, for all who wear the 
garb of humanity have inherited from the infinite 
fatherly and motherly One, whose children we are, the 
same high spiritual nature ; we have all of us, whether 
wise or unwise, rich or poor, of whatever nationality 
or religion, the same supreme interests ; and the same 
great problems of infinitude, of life, and of destiny 
press upon us all for solution. 

The old world, which has rolled on through count- 
less stages and phases of physical progress, until it is 



36 a crt)orug of jFaitf). 

an ideal home for the human family, has, through a 
process of evolution or growth, reached an era of in- 
tellectual and spiritual attainment where there is 
malice toward none and charity for all; where without 
prejudice, without fear, and with perfect fidelity to 
personal convictions, we may clasp hands across the 
chasm of our differences and cheer each other in all 
that is good and true. 

The world's first Parliament of Religions could not 
have been called sooner and have gathered the relig- 
ionists of all these lands together. We had to wait 
for the hour to strike — until the steamship, the railway, 
and the telegraph had brought men together, leveled 
their walls of separation, and made them acquainted 
with each other — until scholars had broken the way 
through the pathless wilderness of ignorance, super- 
stition, and falsehood, and compelled them to respect 
each others' honesty, devotion, and intelligence. A 
hundred years ago the world was not ready for this 
Parliament; fifty years ago it could not have been 
convened, and had it been called but a single genera- 
tion ago, one-half of the religious world could not 
have been directly represented. 

We are still at the dawn of this new era. Its 
grand possibilities are all before us, and its heights 
are ours to reach. We are assembled in this great 
Parliament to look for the first time in each other's 
faces and to speak to each other our best and truest 
words. I can only add my heartfelt word of greeting 
to those you have already heard. I welcome you, 
brothers of every name and land, who have wrought 
so long and so well in accordance with the wisdom 



(&xtttinq. 37 

high heaven has given to you; and I welcome you, 
sisters, who have come with beating hearts and earnest 
purpose to this great feast, to participate, not only in 
this Parliament, but in the great congress associated 
with it. Isabella the Catholic had not only the per- 
ception of a new world, but of an enlightened and 
emancipated womanhood which should strengthen 
religion and bless mankind. I welcome you to the 
fullfilment of her prophetic vision. 

It affords me infinite pleasure to 
J^lfiintOttiattt, welcome the distinguished gentle- 
men who compose this august 
body. It is a matter of satisfaction and pride that 
the relations existing between the people and the na- 
tions of the earth are of such a friendly nature as to 
make this gathering possible. I have long cherished 
the hope that nothing would intervene to prevent the 
full fruition of the labors of your honored chairman. 
I apprehend that the fruitage of this parliament 
will richly compensate him and the world and prove 
the wisdom of his work. It is a source of satisfaction 
that, to the residents of a new city in a far country, 
should be accorded this great privilege and high 
honor. The meeting of so many illustrious and 
learned men under such circumstances evidences the 
kindly spirit and feeling that exists throughout the 
world. To me this is the proudest work of our ex- 
position. There is no man, high or low, learned or 
unlearned, but will watch with increasing interest the 
proceedings of this Parliament. Whatever may be the 
differences in the religions you represent, there is a 



5^ a Otib^tujs n( jFaitib- 

sense in which we are all alike — there is a common 
plane on which we are all brothers. We owe our 
being to conditions that are exactly the same. Our 
journey through this world is by the same route. 
We have in common the same senses, hopes, am- 
bitions, joys, and sorrows; and these, to my mind, 
argue strongly and almost conclusively a common 
destiny. 

To me there is much satisfaction and pleasure in 
the fact that we are brought face to face with men that 
come to us bearing the ripest wisdom of the ages. 
They come in the friendliest spirit, that, I trust, will be 
augmented by their intercourse with us and with each 
other. I hope that your Parliament will prove to be 
a golden milestone on the highway of civilization — 
a golden stairway leading up to the table-land of a 
higher, grander, and more perfect condition, where 
peace will reign and the enginery of war be known no 
more forever. 

I consider myself very 
IBionpSlOS Uatag. happy in having set my feet 
.jUlM^ ^ on this platform, to take part 

Mf^^*r'^*o^ in the congress of the different nations and peoples. 
I thank the great American nation, and especially 
the superiors of this congress, for the high manner 
in which they have honored me by inviting me to 
take part, and I thank the ministers of divinity of the 
different nations and peoples which, for the first 
time, will write in the books of the history of the 
world. 

My desire has always been to visit and see this 



nation, and now, thanks to Almighty God, I am 
here in America, within the precincts of the city 
which is showing the great progress and the won- 
derful achievements of the human mind. My voice, 
as representing the little kingdom of Greece, may 
appear of little importance as compared with the 
voices of you who represent great and powerful 
states, extensive cities, and numerous nations, but the 
influence of the Church to which I belong is exten- 
sive and my part is great. But my thanks to the 
superiors of this congress and my blessings and 
prayers to Almighty God must not be measured by 
extent or quantity but by true sympathy and quality. 
I repeat my thanks to the superiors of this congress, 
and the president, Charles Bonney. 

Reverend ministers of the eloquent name of God, 
the creator of your earth and mine, I salute you on 
the one hand as my brothers in Jesus Christ, from 
whom, according to our faith, all good has originated 
in this world. I salute you in the name of the 
divinely-inspired gospel, which, according to our 
faith, is the salvation of the soul of man and the 
happiness of man in this world. 

All men have a common creator without any dis- 
tinction between the rich and poor, the ruler and the 
ruled; all men have a common creator without any 
distinction of clime or race, without distinction of 
nationality or ancestry, of name or nobility; all men 
have a common creator and, consequently, a common 
father in God. 

I raise up ray hands, and I bless with heartfelt love 



40 a (tiioxm ot jFaitf). 

the great country and the happy, glorious people of 
the United States. 

The recognition, sympathy, and 
£^^ i^O^OOttttJat. welcome you have given to India 

, to-day are gratifying to thousands of 

'^^^^' liberal Hindu religious thinkers, whose representatives 
I see around me, and, on behalf of my countrymen, 
I cordially thank you. India claims her place in the 
brotherhood of mankind, not only because of her 
great antiquity, but equally for what has taken place 
there in recent times. Modern India has sprung 
from ancient India by a law of evolution, a process of 
continuity which explains some of the most difficult 
problems of our national life. In prehistoric times 
our forefathers worshiped the great living spirit, God; 
and, after many strange vicissitudes, we Indian theists, 
led by the light of ages, worship the same living 
spirit, God, and none other. 

India, the ancient among ancients, the elder of the 
elders, lives to-day with her old civilization, her old 
laws, and her profound religion. The old mother of 
the nations and religions is still a power in the world; 
she has often arisen from apparent death, and in the 
future will arise again. 

We are Hindus still, and shall always be. Now 
sits Christianity on the throne of India with the gos- 
pel of peace on one hand and the scepter of civiliza- 
tion on the other. Now it is not the time to despair 
and die. Behold the aspirations of modern India — 
intellectual, social, political — all awakened; our 
religious instincts stirred to the roots. If that had 



Greeting. 41 

not been the case do you think Hindus, Jains, Bud- 
dhists and others would have traversed these fourteen 
thousand miles to pay the tribute of their sympathy 
before this august Parliament of Religions ? 

No individual, no denomination can more fully 
sympathize or more heartily join your conferences 
than we men of the Brahmo-Somaj, whose religion is 
the harmony of all religions, and whose congregation 
is the brotherhood of all nations. 

Such, as our aspirations and sympathies, dear 
brethren accept them. Let me thank you again for 
this welcome in the name of my countrymen, and 
wish every prosperity and success to your labors. 

I cannot help doing honor to the 
5)t)ltiata. Congress of Religions held here in Chi- 
cago as a result of the partial effort of 
those philanthropic brothers who have undertaken 
this, the greatest meeting ever held. It was fourteen 
years ago that I expressed, in my own country, the 
hope that there should be a friendly meeting between 
the world's religionists, and now I realize my hope 
with great joy in being able to attend these phenome- 
nal meetings. 

In the history of the past we read of repeated and 
fierce conflicts between different religious creeds which 
sometimes ended in war. But that time has passed 
away and things have changed in advancing civiliza- 
tion. It is a great blessing, not only to the religions 
themselves, but also to human affairs, that the differ- 
ent religionists can thus gather in a friendly way and 



<>4C«/tAA^ 



42 gl (tiioxm of jFaiti). 

exchange their thoughts and opinions on the impor- 
tant problems of the age. 

I trust that these repeated meetings will gradually 
increase the fraternal relations between the different 
religionists in investigating the truths of the universe, 
and be instrumental in uniting all religions of the 
world, and in bringing all hostile nations into peace- 
ful relations by leading them to the way of perfect 
justice. 

It is a great privilege to be able to 
*vwd w TSTagatfeat* stand on this noble platform. As the 
' . president has already announced to 

^ you, I represent the theistic movement of India, known 

in my native country as the religion of the Brahmo- 
Somaj. I come from the City of Bombay, the first 
city of the British Empire. It was only five months 
ago that I left my native land, and to you the Ameri- 
cans, who are so much accustomed to fly, as it were, 
on wings of the atmosphere, it would be a hard task 
to imagine the difficulties and the troubles that an 
Oriental meets when he has to bring himself over 
fourteen thousand miles. The Hindus have been all 
along confining themselves to the narrow precincts of 
the Indian continent, and it is only during the last 
hundred years or so that we have been brought into 
close contact with Western thought, with English civ- 
ilization ; and by English civilization I mean the 
civilization of English-speaking nations. 

Here in the far West you have developed another 
phase of human life. You have studied outward 
nature. We in the East have studied the inner nature 



Greeting, 43 

of man. Mr Sen, more than twenty years ago, said: 
" Glory to the name of God in the name of the Par- 
liament of Religions." Parliament of Religions is 
exactly the expression that he used on that occa- 
tion in his exposition of the doctrine of the new dis- 
pensation. It simply means the Church of the Brahmo- 
Somaj, Church of God; so that what I wish to express 
to you is that I feel a peculiar pleasure in being pres- 
ent here on this occasion. 

Before I speak to this imposing 
512HolkOtlJ5ikp. audience, 1 wish you would allow 
me to say one word to you person- 
ally. I am not an ecclesiastic, hence I cannot pretend 
to represent a Church. I am not an official delegate 
(at least at the religious Congress I am not), hence I 
have no right of representing a government. And I 
am not a man of science. Therefore, I appreciate all 
the more the great honor you do me in calling on me 
personally and individually in such a splendid gather- 
ing as this. It is already an honor for me to be 
seated among so many distinguished and prominent 
men, but to see my name on the programme of this 
solemn session — that is what I consider the highest 
individual honor that has ever been conferred on me; 
and I thank you for this honor. 

Those who during the last week have had the op- 
portunity of attending not only the congresses of one 
single church, but who could witness different con- 
gresses of different churches and congregations, must 
have been struck with a noticeable fact. They went 
to the Catholic Congress, and heard beautiful words of 



44 a Otijorug of jFaWj. 

charity and love; splendid orators invoked the bless- 
ings of Heaven upon the children of the Catholic 
Church, and, in powerful, eloquent terms, the listeners 
were entreated to love their human brothers in the 
name of the Catholic Church. They went to the 
Lutheran Congress, and heard splendid words of 
humanity and brotherhood; orators inspired with love 
and indulgence invoked the blessings of God on the 
children of the Lutheran Church, and taught those 
who were present to love their human brothers in the 
name of the Lutheran Church. They went to other 
more limited congresses, and everywhere they heard 
these same great words proclaiming these same great 
ideas and inspiring these same great feelings. They 
saw a Catholic archbishop go to a Jewish Congress, 
and with his fiery eloquence bring feelings of brother- 
hood to his Hebraic sisters. Not in one of these con- 
gresses did a speaker forget that he belonged to 
humanity, and that his own church or congregation 
was but a starting point, a center for farther and un 
limited radiation. 

This is the noticeable fact that must have strucK 
everybody; and everybody must have asked himself at 
the end of the week: "Why don't they come to- 
gether, all these people who speak the same language? 
Why do not these splendid orators unite their voices 
in one single chorus? And if they preach the same 
ideas, why don't they proclaim them in the name of 
that same and single truth that inspires them all?" 

To-day their wishes are fulfilled and beyond all 
expectation. 

Being called to greet the present congress on the 



(Greeting, 45 

occasion of its opening, I will take the liberty of re- 
lating to you a popular legend of my native country. 
The story may appear rather too humorous for the 
circumstance; but one of our national writers says: 
"Humor is an invisible tear through a visible smile"; 
and we think that human tears, human sorrow and 
pain are sacred enough to be brought even before a 
religious congress. 

There was an old woman who for many centuries 
suffered tortures in the flames of hell, for she had been 
a great sinner during her earthly life. One day she 
saw far away in the distance an angel taking his flight 
through the blue skies, and with the whole strength 
of her voice she called to him. The call must have 
been desperate, for the angel stopped in his flight 
and, coming down to her, asked her what she wanted. 

"When you reach the throne of God," she said, 
"tell Him that a miserable creature has suffered more 
than she can bear, and that she asks the Lord to be 
delivered from these tortures." 

The angel promised to do so, and flew away. When 
he had transmitted the message, God said: 

"Ask her whether she has done any good to man 
during her life." 

The old woman strained her memory in search of 
a good action during her sinful past, and all at once: 
"I've got one!" she joyfully exclaimed; "one day I 
gave a carrot to a hungry beggar!" 

The angel reported the answer. 

"Take a carrot," said God to the angel, "stretch 
it out to her, let her grasp it, and if the plant is strong 
enough to draw her out from hell, she shall be saved." 



46 a (it\)otm of j[Faiti^. 

So the angel did. The poor old woman clung to 
the carrot. The angel began to pull, and lo! she 
began to rise! But when her body was half out of the 
flames, she felt a weight at her feet; another sinner 
was clinging to her. She kicked, but it did not help; 
the sinner would not let go his hold, and the angel, 
continuing to pull, was lifting them both! But oh, 
another sinner clung to them, and then a third, and 
more, and always more — an endless chain of miser- 
able creatures hung at the old woman's feet! The 
angel never ceased pulling; it did not seem to be any 
heavier than the small carrot could support, and they 
all were rising in the air! But the old woman sud- 
denly took fright; too many people were availing 
themselves of her only, her last chance of salvation! 
And kicking and pushing those who were clinging to 
her, "Leave me alone," she exclaimed; "Hands off — 
the carrot is mine!" 

No sooner had she pronounced this word "mine" 
than the tiny stem broke, and they all fell back to 
hell — and forever. 

In its poetic artlessness, and popular simplicity, 
this legend is too eloquent to need interpretation. If 
any individual, any community, any congregation, 
any church, possesses a portion of truth and of good, 
let that truth shine for everybody — let that good 
become the property of everyone. The substitution 
of the word "mine" by the word "ours," and that of 
"ours" by the word "everyone's," this is what will 
secure a fruitful result to our collective efforts as well 
as to our individual activities. 

This is why we feel happy to welcome and to greet 



eSreeting, 47 

the opening of this congress, where in a combined 
effort of the representatives of all churches and relig- 
ions, all that is great and good and true in each of 
them is brought together in the name of the same 
God and for the sake of the same Man. 

We congratulate the president, the members, and 
all the listeners of this congress upon the tendency of 
union that has gathered them on the soil of the coun- 
try whose allegorical eagle, spreading his mighty 
wings over the stars and stripes, holds in his powerful 
talons those splendid words, " Epluribus unumy 

On behalf of the imperial 
^Nltfl (©Uang ¥U. government of China, I take 

great pleasure in responding to 
the cordial words which the chairman of the general 
committee and others have spoken to-day. This is a 
great moment in the history of nations and religions. 
For the first time men of various faiths meet in one 
great hall to report what they believe and the grounds 
for their belief. The great sage of China, who is hon- 
ored not only by the millions of our own land, but 
throughout the world, believed that duty was summed 
up in reciprocity ; and I think the word reciprocity 
finds a new meaning and glory in the proceedings of 
this historic Parliament. I am glad that the great 
Empire of China has accepted the invitation of those 
who have called this Parliament and is to be repre- 
sented in this great school of comparative religion. 
Only the happiest results will come, I am sure, from 
our meeting together in the spirit of friendliness. 
Each may learn from the other some lessons, I trust, 



48 a atlffoxm of jFaitf). 

of charity and good-will, and discover what is excel- 
lent in other faiths than his own. In behalf of my 
government and people I extend to the representa- 
tives gathered in this great hall the friendliest saluta- 
tions, and to those who have spoken I give my most 
cordial thanks. 

I come only as an individual, but in 
130tUJ3tOtff. the hope that I may, perhaps, help a 
•■'^'^^j*^**^ little to further the great object which 

you, who so kindly invited us, have in view. Religion, 
the most vital question for every human being, is gen- 
erally laid aside at such gatherings and men are too 
apt to forget the claims of God in the bustle of life. 
Here is a free country, where the church is not sup- 
ported by the government and yet where the churches 
have more influence on public life than anywhere else. 
It has been recognized that such a large influx of men 
should not meet without paying attention to the ques- 
tion of all questions. This Parliament is, therefore, a 
testimony, and one whose voice will, I trust, be heard 
all over the earth, that men live not by bread alone, 
but that the care for the immortal soul is the para- 
mount question for every man, the question which 
ought to be treated before all others when men of all 
nations meet. 

I am here to represent a religion, 

,^<j.,;>^rL4w«^ C^Saferabattl. the dawn of which appeared in a 

f misty antiquity which the powerful 

microscope of modern research has not yet been able 

to discover ; the depth of whose beginnings the plum- 



(greeting. 49 

met of history has not been able to sound. From 
time immemorial spirit has been represented by white, 
and matter has been represented by black, and the 
sister streams which join at the town from which I 
came, Allahabad, represent two sources of spirit and 
matter, according to the philosophy of my people. 
And when I think that here, in this city of Chicago, 
this vortex of physicality, this center of material civil- 
ization, you hold a Parliament of Religions ; when I 
think that in the heart of the World's Fair, where 
abound all the excellencies of the physical world, you 
have provided also a hall for the feast of reason and 
the flow of soul, — I am once more reminded of my 
native land. 

Why ? Because here, even here, I find the same 
two sister streams of spirit and matter, of the intellect 
and physicality, joining hand and hand, representing 
the symbolical evolution of the universe. I need 
hardly tell you that, in holding this Parliament of 
Religions, where all the religions of the world are to 
be represented, you have acted worthily of the race 
that is in the vanguard of civilization, the chief char- 
acteristic of which, to my mind, is widening toleration, 
breadth of heart, and liberality toward all the different 
religions of the world. In allowing men of different 
religious opinion and holding different views as to 
philosophical and metaphysical problems to speak 
from the same platform — aye, even allowing me, who, 
I confess, am a heathen, as you call me — to speak 
from the same platform with them, you have acted in 
a manner worthy of the motherland of the society 
which I have come to represent to-day. The funda- 
4 



50 ^ (iliiotm ot dFaiti). 

mental principle of that society is universal tolerance ; 
its cardinal belief that underneath the superficial strata 
runs the living water of truth. 

I have always felt that between India and America 
there was a closer bond of union in the times gone by, 
and I do think it is probable that there may be a sub- 
tler reason for the identity of our names than either 
the theory of Johnson or the mistake of Columbus can 
account for. It is true that I belong to a religion 
which is now decrepit with age, and that you belong 
to a race in the first flutter of life, bristling with 
energy. And yet you cannot be surprised at the sym- 
pathy between us, because you must have observed the 
secret union that sometimes exists between age and 
childhood. 

I can see that even you are getting tired of your 
steam, your electricity, and the thousand different 
material comforts that follow these two great powers. 
I can see that there is a feeling of despondency com- 
ing even here — that matter, pursued however vigor- 
ously, can be only to the death of all, and it is only 
through the clear atmosphere of spirituality that you 
can mount up to the regions of peace and harmony. 
In the West, therefore, you have developed its material 
tendency. In the East we have developed a great 
deal of the spiritual tendency ; but even in this West, 
as I travel from place to place, from New York to 
Cincinnati, and from Cincinnati to Chicago, I have 
observed an ever-increasing readiness of people to 
assimilate spiritual ideas, regardless of the source from 
which they emanate. This, ladies and gentlemen, I 
consider a most significant sign of the future, because 



(greeting. s' 

through this and through the mists of prejudice that 
still hang on the horizon will be consummated the 
great event of the future, the union of the East and of 
the West. 

The East enjoys the sacred satisfaction of having 
given birth to all the great religions of the world, 
and even as the physical sun rises ever from the east, 
the sun of spirituality has always dawned in the east. 
To the West belongs the proud privilege of having 
advanced on the intellectual and on the moral plane, 
and of having supplied to the world all the various 
contrivances of material luxuries and of physical com- 
fort. I look, therefore, upon a union of the East and 
W^est as a most significant event, and I look with great 
hope upon the day when the East and West will be 
like brothers helping each other, each supplying to 
the other what it wants — the West supplying the vigor, 
the youth, the power of organization, and the East 
opening up its inestimable treasures of a spiritual law, 
and which are now locked up in the treasure boxes 
grown rusty with age. 

And I think that this day, with the sitting of the 
Parliament of Religions, we begin the work of 
building up a perennial fountain, from which will flow 
for the next century water of life and light and of 
peace, slacking the thirst of the thousands of millions 
that are to come after us. 

I represent Australasia, a country /ig^^< 
MetlbJOOTj. divided into various colonies, governing 0*.^^-*-^ 

themselves with wonderful freedom, 
and, I may say without boasting, making rapid 
advances on the way to true civilization. I deem it 



52 a (E\)oxm of dfaitf), 

a very great honor and privilege to be present on 
such an occasion as this in an assembly that begins 
as it were on a new era for mankind — an era, I 
believe, of real brotherly love. It is a sad spectacle, 
when the mind ranges over a whole universe, to see 
that multitude of 1,200,000,000 of human beings 
created by the same God, destined to the same hap- 
piness, and yet divided by various barriers; to see 
that instead of love prevailing from nation to nation, 
there are barriers of hatred dividing them. I believe 
an occasion like this is the strongest possible means 
of removing forever such barriers. 

Man is an intelligent being, and therefore he 
requires to know truth. He is also a moral being 
that is bound to live up to that truth and is bound to 
use his will and liberty in accordance with truth. 
He is bound to be a righteous being. We find in all 
religions a number of truths that are the foundation, 
the bed-rock of all morality, and we see them in the 
various religions throughout the world, and we can 
surely, without sacrificing one point of catholic 
morality or of truth, admire these truths revealed in 
some manner by God. 

Man is not only a moral being, but a social being. 
Now the condition to make him happy and pros- 
perous as a social being, to make him progress and 
go forth to conquer the world, both mentally and 
physically, is that he should- be free, and not only be 
free as a man in temporal matters, but be free 
in religious matters. Therefore, it is to be hoped 
that from this day will date the dawn of that period 
when, throughout the whole of the universe, in every 



(Brnting. 53 

nation, the idea of oppressing any man for his 
religion shall be swept away. 

I bring to you the good wishes p, ^^^a . 
i®f)atmapala. of 475,000,000 of Buddhists, the s ^h^-ir^ru.t/^ 

blessings and peace of the religious 
founder of that system which has prevailed so many 
centuries in Asia, which has made Asia mild, and 
which is to-day, in its twenty-fourth century of exist- 
ence, the prevailing religion of the country. I have 
sacrificed the greatest of all work to attend this Parlia- 
ment. I have left the work of consolidation* — an im- 
portant work which we have begun after 700 years — 
the work of consolidating the different Buddhist 
countries, which is the most important work in the 
history of modern Buddhism. When I read the pro- 
gramme of this Parliament of Religion, I saw it was 
simply the re-echo of a great consummation which the 
Indian Buddhists accomplished twenty-two centuries 
ago. 

At that time Asoka, the great emperor, held a 
council in the city of Patma of 1,000 scholars, which 
was in session for seven months. The proceedings 
were epitomized and carved on rock and scattered all 
over the Indian peninsula and the then known globe. 
After the consummation of that programme the great 
emperor sent the gentle teachers, the mild disciples 
of Buddha, in the garb that you see on this platform, 
to instruct the world. In that plain garb they went 
across the deep rivers, the Himalayas, to the plains of 
Mongolia and the Chinese plains, and to the far-off 
beautiful isles, the empire of the rising sun; and the 

♦See page 79. 



54 a atijDtuie; of jFaiti). 

influence of that congress held twenty-two centuries 
ago is to-day a living power, because you everywhere 
see mildness in Asia. 

Go to any Buddhist country and where do you 
find such healthy compassion and tolerance as you 
find there? Go to Japan, and what do you see? The 
noblest lessons of tolerance and gentleness. Go to 
any of the Buddhist countries, and you will see the 
carrying out of the programme adopted at the con- 
gress called by the Emperor Asoka. 

Why do I come here to-day ? Because I find in 
this new city, in this land of freedom, the very place 
where that programme can again be carried out. For 
one year I meditated whether this Parliament would 
be a success. Then I wrote to Dr. Barrows that this 
would be the proudest occasion of modern history and 
the crowning work of nineteen centuries. Yes, friends, 
if you are serious, if you are unselfish, if you are altru- 
istic, this programme can be carried out, and the 
twentieth century will see the teachings of the meek 
and lowly Jesus accomplished. 

I hope in this great city, the youngest of all cities 
but the greatest of all cities, this programme will be 
carried out, and that the name of Dr. Barrows will 
shine forth as the American Asoka. And I hope that 
the noble lessons of tolerance learned in this majes- 
tic assembly will result in the dawning of universal 
peace which will last for twenty centuries more — the 
entire world looking toward the goal of progress and 
singing the strain that was struck on the immortal lyre 
of the grand bard, Tennyson, 

"Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Ring in the Christ that is to be." 



Greeting- ss 

I hope that there will be a bond of 
Uon 13ctgett. mental, spiritual affinity, between /u.^-tSMhuU" 
Swedes and Americans. God is not iv«*-f'A«.-'w-»*»* 
always on the side of the great warriors — the grim- 
visaged, powder-stained warriors — who have stood in 
the front ranks and kept at bay huge armies. God is 
not always with them, but is as often with the meek, 
the lowly-spirited, even as he was with the Puritans in 
the early days when they hewed the path of progress 
in the new world. There is but one God. Swedes 
and Americans alike share his beautiful gifts. 

I, like my respected friends, Mr. * * i 

O JantJl. Mozoomdar and others, come from India, Z'*'*''^ 

the mother of religions. I represent Jain 
ism, a faith older than Buddhism, similar to it in its 
ethics, but different from it in its psychology, and 
professed by 1,500,000 of India's most peaceful and 
law-abiding citizens. I will at present only offer on 
behalf of my community and their high priest, Moni 
Alma Ranji, whom I especially represent here, our 
sincere thanks for the kind welcome you have given 
us. This spectacle of the learned leaders of thought 
and religion meeting together on a common platform, 
and throwing light on religious problems, has been 
the dream of Alma Ranji's life. He has commissioned 
me to say to you that he offers his most cordial con- 
gratulations on his own behalf, and on behalf of the 
Jain community, for you, having achieved the consum- 
mation of that grand idea of convening a Parliament 
of Religions. 



56 a Otijorus of jFaitf). 

Salutations to the new world, in the 
^CJJfta^* name of Armenia, the oldest country of 
the old world. Salutations to the Ameri- 
can people, in the name of Armenia, which has been 
twice the cradle of the human race. Salutations to 
the Parliament of Religions, in the name of Armenia, 
where the religious feeling first blossomed in the 
enraptured heart of Adam. Salutations to every one 
of you, brothers and sisters, in the name of the Tigris 
and the Euphrates, which watered the Garden of 
Eden ; in the name of the majestic Ararat, which was 
crowned by the ark of Noah ; in the name of a Church 
which was almost contemporary with Christ. 

A pious thought animated Christopher Columbus 
when he directed the prow of his ship toward this 
land of his dreams, the thought of converting the 
natives to the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. 
A still more pious thought animates you now, noble 
Americans, because you try to convert the whole of 
humanity to the dogma of universal toleration and 
fraternity. Old Armenia blesses this grand under- 
taking of young America, and wishes her to succeed 
in laying, on the extinguished volcanoes of religious 
hatred, the foundation of the temple of peace and 
concord. 

It fills my heart with joy 
UibcltanaTlTia* unspeakable to rise in response to 
the warm and cordial welcome 
which you have given us. I thank you in the name 
of the most ancient order of monks in the world: I 
thank you in the name of the mother of religions; 



(Sreeting. 57 

and I thank you in the name of the millions and 
millions of Hindoo people of all classes and sects. 

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this 
platform who have told you that these men from far- 
off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to 
the different lands the idea of toleration. I am 
proud to belong to a religion which has taught the 
world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We 
believe not only in universal toleration, but we 
accept all religions as true. I belong to a religion 
into whose sacred language, the Sanscrit, the word 
exclusion is untranslatable. I am proud to belong 
to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and 
the refugees of all religions and all nations of the 
earth. We have gathered in our bosom the purest 
remnant of the Israelites, a remnant which came to 
southern India and took refuge with us in the very 
year in which their holy temple was shattered to 
pieces by Roman tyranny. I belong to the religion 
which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant 
of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to 
you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I 
remember to have repeated from my earliest boy- 
hood, which is every day repeated by millions of 
human beings: "As the different streams having 
their sources in different places all mingle their water 
in the sea, O Lord, so the different paths which men 
take through different tendencies, various though 
they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to thee." 

The present convention, which is one of the most 
august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, 
a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine 



5S a atf)nrug of jFaiti). 

preached in Gita: "Whosoever comes to me, 
through whatsoever form I reach him, they are all 
struggling through paths that in the end always lead 
to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible 
descendant, fanaticism, have possessed long this 
beautiful earth. It has filled the earth with violence, 
drenched it often and often with human blood, 
destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to 
despair. Had it not been for this horrible demon, 
human society would be far more advanced than it is 
now. But its time has come; and I fervently hope 
that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of 
this convention may be the death knell to all fanati- 
cism, to all persecutions with the sword or the pen, 
and to all uncharitable feelings between persons 
wending their way to the same goal. 

It seems to me that we should begin this 
Oftattt* Parliament of Religions, not with a con- 
sciousness that we are doing a great thing, 
but with an humble and lowly confession of sin and 
failure. Why have not the inhabitants of the world 
fallen before truth? The fault is ours. The Apostle 
Paul, looking back on centuries of marvelous God- 
guided history, saw as the key to all its maxims this: 
That Jehovah had stretched out his hands all day long 
to a disobedient and gainsaying people; that although 
there was always a remnant of righteousness, Israel as 
a nation did not understand Jehovah, and therefore 
failed to understand her own marvelous mission. 

If St. Paul were here to-day, would he not utter the 
same sad confession with regard to the nineteen 



(greeting. 59 

centuries of Christendom ? Would he not have to say 
that we have been proud of our Christianity, instead of 
allowing our Christianity to humble and crucify us; 
that we have boasted of Christianity as something we 
possessed, instead of allowing it to possess us; that we 
have divorced it from the moral and spiritual order of 
the world, instead of seeing that it is that which inter- 
penetrates, interprets, completes, and verifies that 
order; and that so we have hidden its glories and 
obscured its power? All day long our Savior has 
been saying: " I have stretched out my hands to a 
disobedient and gainsaying people." 

But, sir, the only one indispensable condition of 
success is that we recognize the cause of our failure, 
that we confess it with humble, lowly, penitent, and 
obedient minds, and that with quenchless western 
courage and faith we now go forth and do otherwise. 

When we meet one another in our 
SOtdtfC* land the first thing we say to each other EMA^fcP^J^,*^ 

is, "Peace be with you." I say it to you 
to-day in all sincerity, in all love. I feel to-day that 
the great banner over us is the banner of love. I feel 
to-day more than ever that it is beautiful to belong to 
the family of God, to acknowledge the Lord Christ. 

I would leave with you one little message from my 
countrywomen. When I was leaving the shores of 
Bombay, the women of my country wanted to know 
where I was going, and I told them I was going to 
America on a visit. They asked me whether I would 
be at this congress. I thought then I would only come 
in as one of the audience, but I have the great privilege 



6o a dt^ioxm of Jfaiti). 

and honor given to me to stand here and speak to 
you, and I give you the message as it was given to 
me. The Christian women of my land said : " Give 
the women of America our love, and teil them that we 
love Jesus, and that we shall always pray that our 
countrywomen may do the same. Tell the women of 
America that we are fast being educated. We shall 
one day be able to stand by them and converse with 
them and be able to delight in all they delight in." 

And so I have a message from each one of my 
countrywomen; and once more I will just say that I 
have not words enough in which to thank you for the 
welcome you have given to all those who have come 
here from the East. When I came here this morning 
and saw my countrymen, my heart was warmed, and 
I thought I would never feel homesick again, and I 
feel to-day as if I were at home. Seeing your kindly 
faces has turned away the heart-ache. 

I must tender my most sincere thanks 
j . . J * JHotltPClf. to you for the honor which you have 
I done me m mvitmg me to come here, 

and also for the many words and deeds of welcome 
with which I have been greeted ever since I came. I 
feel bound to say that there is one thing which, to me 
personally, casts a gloom over the brightness of the 
day, and that is the absence of my own archbishop. 
But you must not therefore think that the Church of 
England, as a whole, is out of sympathy with you. 
One of the greatest and best men the Church of Eng- 
land has ever had, the late Dean of Westminster, 
would, if he were alive to-day, have been with us, and 



Sueting, 6i 

I believe, too. he would have succeeded in bringing 
with him the Archbishop of Canterbury; also many- 
men, like Arnold, of Rugby ; Frederick Robertson, of 
Brighton ; and Frederick Maurice, who was one of my 
predecessors at King's College. 

Of all the studies of the present day the most seri- 
ous, interesting, and important is the study of com- 
parative religion ; and I believe that this object-lesson, 
which it is the glory of America to have provided for 
the world, will do far more than any private study in 
the seclusion of the student's own home. The report 
of our proceedings, which will be telegraphed all over 
the world, will help men by thousands and tens of 
thousands and hundreds of thousands to realize the 
truth of those grand old Bible words, that **God has 
never left himself without witness." It cannot be — I 
say it cannot be — that that new commandment was 
inspired when uttered by Christ and was not inspired 
when uttered, as it was uttered, by Confucius and by 
Hillel. The fact is, all religions are fundamentally 
more or less true, and all religions are superficially 
more or less false. And I suspect that the creed of 
the universal religion, the religion of the future, will 
be summed up pretty much in the words of Tennyson, 
words which were quoted in that magnificent address 
which thrilled us this morning : 

For so the whole round earth is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 



62 a (t^oxm Of jFaitf). 

^ But Africa needs a voice. Africa has 

T*^^^^ , ^tTtltt. been welcomed, and it is so peculiar a 
'^4'2r^'*^^ thing for an African to be welcomed that I 

l^ ^^congratulate myself that I have been welcomed here 
to-day. I respond for the Africans in Africa, and 
accept your welcome on behalf of the African con- 
tinent, with its millions *of acres and millions of 
inhabitants, with its mighty forests, with its great 
beasts, with its great men, and its great possibilities. 
Though some think that Africa is in a bad way, I am 
one of those who have not lost faith in the possibilities 
of a redemption of Africa. I believe in providence 
and in the prophecies of God that Ethopia yet shall 
stretch forth her hand unto God, and, although to-day 
our land is in the possession of others and every foot 
of land and every foot of water in Africa has been 
appropriated by the governments of Europe, yet I 
remember, in the light of history, that those same 
nations parceled out the American continent in the 
past. 

But America had her Jefferson. Africa in the 
future is to bring forth a Jefferson who will write a 
declaration of the independence of the dark continent. 
And as you had your Washington, so God will give 
us a Washington to lead our hosts. Or, if it please 
God, he may raise up not a Washington, but another 
Toussaint L'Ouverture, who will become the path- 
finder of his country, and, with his sword, will at the 
head of his people, lead them to freedom and equality. 
He will form a republican government whose corner- 
stone will be religion, morality, education, and temper- 
ance, acknowledging the fatherhood of God and the 



(Breeting. 63 

brotherhood of man, while the ten commandments 
and the golden rule shall be the rule of life and con- 
duct in the great republic of redeemed Africa. 

But, sir, I accept your welcome, also on behalf of 
the negroes of the American continent. As early as 
1502 or 1503, we are told, the negroes came to this 
country. And we have been here ever since, and we 
are going to stay here, too — some of us are. Some of 
us will go to Africa, because we have got the spirit of 
Americanism, and wherever there is a possibility in 
sight, some of us will go. We accept your welcome 
to this grand assembly, and we come to you this after- 
noon and thank God that we meet these representa- 
tives of the different religions of the world. We meet 
you on the height of this Parliament of Religions and 
the first gathering of the peoples since the time of 
Noah, when Shem, Ham, and Japhet met together. I 
greet the children of Shem, I greet the children of 
Japhet, and I want you to understand that Ham is 
here. 

I thank you that I have been chosen as the repre- 
sentative of the negro race in this great Parliament. 
I thank these representatives that have come so far to 
meet and to greet us of the colored race. A gentle- 
man said to-day in this meeting that he had traveled 
14,000 miles to get here. "Why," said I to myself, 
" that is a wonderful distance to come to meet me. I 
wonder if I would go that far to meet him." Yes, he 
says he came 14,000 miles to meet us here, and " us," 
in this case means me, too. Therefore, I welcome 
these brethren to the shores of America on behalf of 
7,400,000 negroes on this continent, who by theprovi- 



64 a (fti)oxm of jFaitf). 

dence of God and the power of the religion of Jesus 
Christ have been liberated from slavery. There is 
not a slave amongst us to-day, and we are glad you 
did not come while we were in chains, because, in that 
case, we could not have got here ourselves. 



HARMONY OF THE PROPHETS. 



65 



One holy Church of God appears 

Through every age and race, 
Unwasted by the lapse of years, 

Unchanged by changing place. 

From oldest time on farthest shores, 

Beneath the pine or palm, 
One Unseen Presence she adores, 

With silence or with psalm. 

Her priests are all God's faithful sons, 

To serve the world raised up ; 
The pure in heart her baptized ones, 

Love, her communion-cup. 

The Truth is her prophetic gift, 

The Soul her sacred page ; 
And feet on mercy's errand swift 

Do make her pilgrimage. 

Samuel Longfellow. 



66 



HARMONY OF THE PROPHETS. 



Follow Moses to the top of the moun- Ja-*4^"*-»^ 
C«Otti)fn« tain, where he is alone. See the man « 

who could stretch forth an iron hand 
when it was necessary, stretched on the face of the 
earth and seeking forgiveness for his people, and when 
his prayer was not answered, *'0, if Thou wilt not 
forgive my people, then blot me out of the book that 
Thou hast written." So tender! And another 
instance: Before his death he, as you know, admon- 
ished the people in words that are immortal. After 
forty years of such labor as he had expended he 
admits that his people have learned almost nothing; 
and I must quote Emerson, who says: **It is in the 
nature of great men that they should be mis-under- 
stood." But with the tenderness, with the thought- 
fulness of a father he did not scold his people before 
the shadow of death fell upon him. He says not, 
"You are ignorant," "You are hard hearted," "You 
are blind," "You are stubborn." Listen! "But God 
has not yet, my dear people, given you a heart to 
understand, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear." Do 
you hear that tenderness in these words? "God has 
not given you the light you need." 

They say that that man was not a man at all, but 
that it is the simple creation of the nation's fancy. 
Glorious fancy! We should worship him; for where 

67 



68 a (ftiioxm of 4Faitf). 

has the nation's love and veneration ever produced a 
picture like it? It appears to me as if it had been 
painted in three great panels. The first period, the 
period of storm and stress where he undertook the 
delivery of his people, but God was not in it and so 
he failed. And then the second period of retirement, 
of solitude, of self-absorption, of preparation for the 
great path. Then the final picture shows us the man of 
action, the man of energy, the man of insight, and 
the picture closes with the words: "No man knows 
his grave to this day." Lonely he was in life, lonely 
he was in death; but though no man knows his grave 
all the world knows his life. 

Here, briefly, I will say something, as part of my 
duty, on the influence of Moses. I cannot circumscribe 
it. I know not where it ends. Every Christian 
church on earth and every mosque is his monument. 
Peace is the foundation stone, the historic foundation 
stone, on which they all rest ; and that cross over the 
church on which the man is hung, which to the Chris- 
tian is the symbol of Deity itself, where he said that 
he must die so that the law of Moses be fulfilled. And 
the Arabians' great master, Mohammed, is overwhelm- 
ing in praise when the son of Amram comes to his 
mind. Five hundred millions, at least, acknowledge 
him their master. Five hundred millions more will 
bow to his name. I know not what human society can 
be, or become, and allow that name to be forgotten. 

Are his doctrines to be abolished ? For two cen- 
turies, the first two centuries of the Christian Church, 
no other Bible was known but the Old Testament ; 
and to-day in every synagogue and temple and on 



every day and occasion of prayer, when his own fol- 
lowers come to the sacred shrine, the whole mystery 
hidden, there is the law of Moses. And they take it in 
their hands — and, oh, how often I have seen in my youth 
that scroll bedewed with the tears of the poor suffer- 
ing Jew — and they lift it up again, and say, " This is the 
law that Moses laid before the people of Israel." It 
is done so at this very moment, at this very hour of 
our Sabbath ; and I thank God from my whole heart, 
and I feel inclined almost to say, "Now let thy ser- 
vant go," that from the Jewish synagogue I could 
come here among you followers of other masters, dis- 
ciples of other teachers, pilgrims from many land ; 
that I could stand up in your midst, and, feeling that 
your heart and your soul and your sympathy is with 
me, simply repeating, "This is the law that Moses has 
laid before us Israelites." 

Brethren, I am not speaking in the narrow spirit of 
rivalry ; far be that from my theme. Veneration for 
Moses has not yet hindered me to see, to admire, and 
to learn from other masters ; the sun has lost nothing 
of his glory since we know that he is not the center of 
the universe, and that in other fields of the infinite 
space there are like suns unto him. What shall hin- 
der me to learn from the masters which you honor ? 
I can well understand, I can honor, the man that 
said : " All must decrease that Christ may increase." 
But no true Christ ever said, "All must decrease that I 
may increase." And I remember the fine saying 
ascribed to Buddha : " I forbid you," said he to his 
disciples ; " I forbid you to believe anything simply 
because I said it." 



7° a (tfjoxu^ ot jTaitf), 

Where shall we find one that combines in his per- 
sonality so many greatnesses as Moses, if I may say 
so ? He was the liberator of his people, but he 
spurned crowns and scepters, and did not, as many 
others after him did, put a new yoke on the neck from 
which he had taken the old one. To every lover of 
the American constitution that man must be a polit- 
ical saint. And his republic was not of short dura- 
tion. It lasted through all the storms of barbaric 
wars and revolutions — hundreds of years, down to the 
day of Samuel, that all-stout-hearted republican who 
could endure no kings ; that man that saw so clearly 
what royal work would do ; that man who is so 
wrongly judged by our Sunday-school moralities, he 
fought with his last breath for the independence of his 
people, and when the king they had chosen showed 
that he was not the right man he spared him not, and 
looked for one that should be worthy to rule his 
people. 

But the republic he founded stands unique in the 
history of the world, for it was altogether based upon 
an idea — the idea of the unity of God and the right- 
eousness of his will. Think of it ! Among a nation 
escaped from bondage too degraded even to be led to 
war, that needed the education, the hammering, as it 
were, into a people for forty years, to go among them 
with the sublimest truth that the human mind ever can 
conceive and to say of them : " Though you are now 
benighted and enslaved, any truth that I know is not 
too good for you nor any child of God." Whence 
did the man derive that inspiration ? If from the 
Almighty, then may we not say there arose not 



another like him ? And can we wonder that when he 
came down from the mountain the light that shone 
from his face was too much for the eyes of the people, 
and he had to cover it. 

How many religions and their sects 
iBtOfiUCjU are there in the world? Thousands. Is J^i*^9-i^JU^ 

it to be hoped that the number of relig- 
ions in the world will be increased by thousands 
more? No. Why? If such were our hope we ought 
to finally bring the number of religions to as great a 
figure as that of the population of the world, and the 
priests of the various religions should not be allowed 
to preach for the purpose of bringing the people into 
their respective sects. In that case they should rather 
say: "Don't believe whatever we preach; get away 
from the church and make your own sect as we do." 
Is it right for the priest to say so? No. 

Then, is there a hope of decreasing the number of 
religions? Yes. How far? To one. Why? Be- 
cause the truth is only one. Each sect or religion, as 
its ultimate object, aims to attain truth. Geometry 
teaches us that the shortest distance between two 
points is limited to one line, so we must find out that 
one way of attaining the truth among the thousands 
of ways to which the rival religions point us; and if 
we cannot find out that one way among the already 
established religions, we must seek it in a new one. 
So long as we have thousands of religions the religion 
of the world has not yet attained its full development 
in all respects. If the thousands of religions do con- 
tinue to develop and reach the state of full develop- 



72 



a atiioxm of jFaiti). 



ment, there will be no more any distinction between 
them, or any difference between faith and reason, 
religion and science. This is the end at which we 
aim and to which we believe that we know the shortest 
way. 






The spirit of Christianity is full of 
lB$bilT$* simple sincerity, exalted dignity, and 
sweet unselfishness. It aims to impart a 
blessing, rather than to challenge a comparison. It 
is not so anxious to vindicate itself as to confer its 
benefits. It is not so solicitous to secure supreme 
honor for itself as to win its way to the heart. It 
does not seek to taunt, to disparage or humiliate its 
rival, but rather to subdue by love, attract by its own 
excellence and supplant by virtues of its own incom- 
parable superiority. It is itself incapable of a spirit 
of rivalry, because of its own indisputable right to 
reign. It has no use for a sneer, it can dispense with 
contempt, it carries no weapons of violence, it is not 
given to argument, it is incapable of trickery or 
deceit, and it repudiates cant. It relies ever upon its 
own intrinsic merit and bases all its claims on its 
right to be heard and honored. 



We Mussulmans firmly believe that the 
i.^^^/i^O'^iZv^..^^^ 5l5Eeibfi. teachings of Moses, Abraham, Jesus, and 

Mohammed were substantially the same; 
that the followers of each truly inspired prophet have 
always corrupted and added, more or less, to the sys- 
tem he taught, and have drifted into materialistic 
forms and ceremonies; that the true spirit has often 



I^armong of ti^t ^ropDetg. 73 

been sacrificed to what may, perhaps, be called the 
weak conceptions of fallible humanity. 

My purpose is accomplished if I have ^^.^^^'■HauM.^af*^**, 
fiSittCtX, won your respect and interest in the 
teachings of this great apostle, who, claim- 
ing to be called of the Lord to open the scriptures, 
presents a harmony of truths that would gather into 
its embrace all that is of value in every religion and 
open out into a career of illimitable spiritual progress. 

The most unimpassioned of men, perhaps because 
he so well understood that his mission was not his 
own, but the concern of him who builds through the 
ages, Swedenborg wrote and published. The result 
is a liberty that calmly awaits the truth-seekers. If 
the religions of the world become disciples there, it 
will not be proselytism that will take them there, but 
the organic course of events in that providence which 
works on, silent but mighty, like the forces that poise 
planets and gravitate among the stars. 

Present history shows the effect of unsuspected 
causes. This Parliament of Religions is itself a testi- 
mony to unseen spiritual causes, and should at least 
incline to belief in Swedenborg's testimony, that a 
way is open, both in the spiritual world and on earth, 
for a universal church in the faith of one visible God 
in whom is the invisible, imparting eternal life and 
enlightenment to all from every nation who believe in 
him and work righteousness. 



74 a atfioxm ot dFaitf), 

We believe that the prophets of the 
iEaiflatfeat* world — spiritual teachers such as Vyas 

^ . and Buddha, Moses and Mohammed, 

|'^TTfc/vv»**-d • Jesus and Zoroaster, all form a homogeneous whole. 

'''**'*^ * Each has to teach mankind his own message. Every 
prophet was sent from above with a distinct message, 
and it is the duty of us who live in these advanced 
times to put these messages together and thereby 
harmonise and unify the distinctive teachings of the 
prophets of the world. It would not do to accept the 
one and reject all the others, or to accept some and 
reject even a single one. The general truths taught 
by these different prophets are nearly the same in their 
essence ; but, in the midst of all these universal truths 
that they taught, each has a distinctive truth to teach, 
and it should be our earnest purpose to find out and 
understand this particular truth. To me Vyas teaches 
how to understand and apprehend the attributes of 
divinity. The Jewish prophets of the Old Testament 
teach the idea of the sovereignty of God; they speak 
of God as a king, a monarch, a sovereign who rules 
over the affairs of mankind as nearly and as closely as 
an ordinary human king. Mohammed, on the other 
hand, most emphatically teaches the idea of the unity 
of God. He rebelled against the trinitarian doctrine 
imported into the religion of Christ through Greek 
and Roman influences. The monotheism of Moham- 
med is hard and unyielding, aggressive and almost 
savage. 

In spite of all such errors Mohammed's ideal of 
the unity of God stands supreme and unchallenged in 
his teachings. Buddha, the great teacher of morals 



and ethics, teaches in most sublime strains the doc- 
trine of Nirvana, or self-denial and self-effacement. 
This principle of extreme self-abnegation means noth- 
ing more than the subjugation and conquest of our 
carnal self. For you know that man is a composite 
being. In him he has the angelic and the animal, 
and the spiritual training of our life means no more 
than subjugation of the animal and the setting free of 
the angelic. 

So, also, Christ Jesus of Nazareth taught a sublime 
truth when he inculcated the noble idea of the father- 
hood of God. He taught many other truths, but the 
fatherhood of God stands supreme above them all. 
The brotherhood of man is a mere corollary, or a con- 
clusion, deduced from the idea of the fatherhood of 
God. Jesus taught this truth in the most emphatic 
language, and therefore that is the special message 
that he has brought to fallen humanity. In this way, 
by means of an honest and earnest study of the lives 
and teachings of different prophets of the world, we 
can find out the central truth of each faith. Having 
done this it should be our highest aim to harmonize 
all this and to build up our spiritual nature on them. 

The religious history of the present century has 
most clearly shown the need and necessity of the rec- 
ognition of some universal truths in religion. For the 
last several years there has been a ceaseless yearning, 
a deep longing after such a universal religion. The 
present Parliament of Religions, which we have been 
for the last few days celebrating with so much edifica- 
tion and ennoblement, is the clearest indication of 
this universal longing, and whatever the prophets of 



76 a (tfioxm of dfaiti). 

despondency or the champions of orthodoxy may say 
or feel, every individual who has the least spark of 
spirituality alive in him must feel that this spiritual 
fellowship that we have enjoyed for the last few days 
within the precincts of this noble hall cannot but be 
productive of much that leads toward the establish- 
ment of universal peace and good-will among men 
and nations of the world. 

Clsvt* • That religion will hold the world at last 

(Efiant, which makes men most good and most 
happy. Whatever there has been in this 
old past of the faiths that have made men more good 
and more happy, that lives with us to-day and helps 
on the progressiveness of all that we have learned 
since. We have learned that religion, whatever the 
science of it may be, is the principle of spiritual 
growth. We have learned that to be religious is to be 
alive. 

The more religion you have, the more full of life 
and truth you are, and the more able to give life to 
all those with whom you come in contact. That 
religion which helps us most, to the most bravery in 
dealing with human souls, that is the religion that 
will hold the world. That which makes you or me 
the most brave in days of failure or defeat in another 
human soul is the religion which is bound to conquer 
in the end, by whatever name you call it. And be- 
lieve me, and my belief is with that of most of you 
here, that religion which to-day goes most bravely to 
the worst of all evils, goes with its splendid 
optimism into the darkest corners of the earth, that 



f^atmcinj) of ti^t ^xop^tt^. 77 

is the religion of to-day, under whatever name you 
call it. 

To-day we are beginning to understand that a sys- 
tem of theology that did not take and does not take 
into itself all that literature has given and all that art 
is pouring forth, all that the heart of man is yearn- 
ing after, would be insufficient; and the conse- 
quence is that in and outside the churches the relig- 
ousness of the world is calling for art to take her 
place as an exponent of religion; for nature to take 
her part as the great educator of men in all those feel- 
ings that are most religious as regards God. In fact, 
that I and you, when we want to do best for that 
criminal, or that outcast, or that hard one, we will 
learn it, not by going to schoolmasters and books, but 
by going right there into the solitudes of the mount- 
ains and of the lakes which our Father has made, and 
learn of his marvels in the wild flower and the song 
of the birds, and come back to our brother and say: 
"Is not this human soul of more value than many 
sparrows?" 

If God so clothed the mountains, heaths, and 
meadows of the world, shall he not clothe these 
human souls with a beauty that transcends Solomon 
in all his glory, with a joy unspeakable and full of 
glory ? It is the deepening, the heightening, the 
broadening of that that is to be the outcome of this 
most wonderful Parliament. Is it not that the Day 
of Pentecost has come back to us once again ? Do 
we not hear them all speak with the tongue wherein 
we were born, this tongue of prayer, that we may 
know each other and go up and be more likely to get 



78 a (!tf}oxm oi jFaiti^. 

nearer to him as the ages roll on ? This Parliament 
will be far-reaching. There is no limit over the 
world to what these parliaments will mean in the 
impetus given to the deepening of religious life. It will 
be so much easier for you and me, in the years to 
come, to bow our heads with reverence when we catch 
the sound of the Moslem's prayer. It will be so much 
easier for you and me, in the days to come, to picture 
God our father answering the prayer of the Japan- 
ese in the Jap's own language. It will be so much 
easier for you and me to understand that God has no 
creed whatever, that mankind is his child and shall 
be one with him one day and live with him forever. 

It is not the words that are the things, but it is the 
soul behind the words ; and the soul there is behind 
this great Parliament of Religions to-day is this newer 
humility which makes me feel that I am not the cus- 
todian of all or every truth that has ever been given 
to the world. That God, my father, has made relig- 
ious truth like the facets of the diamond, one facet 
reflecting one color and another another color, and it 
is not for me to dare to say that the particular color 
that my eye rests upon is the only one that the world 
ought to see. Thank God for these different voices 
that have been speaking to us this morning. Thank 
God out from the mummies of Egypt, out from the 
mosques of Syria, there have come to you and me this 
morning that which shall send us back to our homes 
more religious, in the deepest sense of the word, than 
we were before, and therefore better able to take up 
this great work of religion to the redeeming of the 
world out of darkness into light, out of sorrow into 



I^armnnj) ot tije ^Iropljeties, 79 

happiness, out of sin and misery into the righteous- 
ness that abideth forever. 

There is one voice speaking to us this morning 
which was laid down in the close of one of our poems, 
— I refer to those words of Shelley in that magnificent 
poem, "Prometheus Unbound." It will stand for 
every language in one tongue to-day and for the em- 
bodiment of the outcome of religious feeling in you 
and me : 

To forgive wrongs darker than death and night ; 

To suffer woes that Hope thinks infinite ; 

To love and bear ; to hope, till Hope creates 

From her own wrecks, the thing she contemplates. 

Never to change, nor falter, nor repent. 

This like thy glory, Titan, is to be 

Good, brave, and joyous, beautiful and free ; 

This is alone Life, Love, Empire, and Victory. 

The object of the Indo Busseki Kof- l\j)<) ij^ 
JSOtlUCi^l* uka society of Tokio is to restore and re- 
establish the holy places of Buddhism in 
India, and to send out a certain number of Japanese 
priests to perform devotional exercises in each of them, 
and promote the convenience of pilgrims from Japan. 
These holy places are Buddha Gaya, where Buddha 
attained to the perfect enlightenment; Kapilavastu, 
where Buddha was born; the Deer Park, where 
Buddha first preached ; and Kusinagara, where 
Buddha entered Nirvana. 

*Two thousand nine hundred and twenty years 
ago, that is one thousand and twenty-six years before 
Christ, the world-honored Prince Siddartha was born 

* The chronology differs widely from that offered by western scholars, a§ 
indeed they differ from each other. See also page 53. 



in the palace of his father, King Suddhodana, in 
Kapilavastu, the capital of the kingdom Magadha. 
When he was 19 years old he began to lament men's 
inevitable subjection to the various sufferings of sick- 
ness, old age, and death; and, discarding all his 
precious possessions and the heirship to the kingdom, 
he went into a mountain jungle to seek, by medita- 
tion and asceticism, the way of escape from these 
sufferings. After spending six years there and find- 
ing that the way he seeks after was not in asceticism, 
he went out from there and retired under the Bodhi 
tree of Buddhism Gaya, where at last, by profound 
meditation, he attained the supreme wisdom and 
became Buddha. 

The light of truth and mercy began to shine from 
him over the whole world and the way of perfect 
emancipation was open for all human beings, so that 
everyone can bathe in his blessings and walk in the 
way of enlightenment. 

When the ancient King Asoka of Magadha was 
converted into Buddhism he erected a large and mag- 
nificent temple over the spot, to show his gratitude to 
the founder of his new religion. But, sad to say, 
since the fierce Mohammedans invaded and laid waste 
the country, there being no Buddhist to guard the 
temple, which fell into the hands of a Brahmanist 
priest, who chanced to come here and seize it. 

It was early in the spring of 1891 that the Japanese 
priest, Rev. Shaku Shoyen, in company with H. Dhar- 
mapala, of Ceylon, visited this holy ground. The 
great Buddha Gaya temple was carefully repaired and 
restored to its former state by the British government; 



but they could not help being very much grieved to 
see it subjected to such desecration in the hands of 
the Brahminist Mahant, and communicated to us 
their earnest desire to rescue it. 

With warm sympathy for them and thinking, as 
Sir Edwin Arnold said, that it is not right for Bud- 
dhists to leave the guardianship of the holy center of 
Buddhist religion of grace to the hand of a Brahmin- 
ist priest, we organized this Indo Busseki Kofuka 
Society in Japan to accomplish the object before men- 
tioned; in cooperation with the Maha Bodhi Society, 
organized by H. Dharmapala and other brothers in 
India. These are the outlines of the origin and object 
of our Indo Busseki Kofuka Society, and I believe 
our Buddha Gaya movement will bring people of all 
Buddhist countries into closer connection and be 
instrumental in promoting the brotherhood among 
the people of the whole world. — From a letter from 
the Secretary. 

Every political man who does his best jJioAji^^ 
IStOtlifCfe. for the benefit of his people is our friend. 
Every earnest and sincere scientist is our 
assistant. Every noble artist is our helpmate. Every 
honest business man and manufacturer, every respect- 
able and hard-working man or woman are our co- 
workers. All good children are our best friends, and 
we are theirs. A noble father, a careful mother are 
inclosed in our holy circle. The honest poor, the 
sick and widows and orphans, the deserted and lonely 
people are especially welcome, and shall benefit from 



8^ a (itifoxm cif jFaiti). 

our practical idealism, which means not consolation 
for the future, but practical help for this life. 

All masters and teachers, tutors and governesses 
are our fellows, if they work in the spirit of our 
idealism. Even all priests of all religions are our 
friends, so far as they theoretically and practically 
agree with our principles. All the rich and wealthy 
are our friends, if they practically agree to our relig- 
ion. 

The new religion is not aggressive but creative and 
reforming. It has nothing to do with anarchism or 
revolutionism. It works not with force, but with or- 
ganization, example, doctrine. If attacked it defends 
itself with all means permitted by our principles, and 
if undermined by secret agitation or open crime it 
does not give way. Faithful to idealism unto death 
is our device. 

There is a legend that when Adam 
£^ttititfi* and Eve were turned out of Eden or 
earthly Paradise, an angel smashed the 
gates, and the fragments flying all over the earth are 
the precious stones. We can carry the legend further. 
The precious stones were picked up by the various 
religions and philosophers of the world. Each claimed 
and claims that its own fragment alone reflects the 
light of heaven, forgetting the settings and incrusta- 
tions which time has added. Patience, my brothers. 
In God's own time we shall, all of us, fit our fragments 
together and reconstruct the Gates of Paradise. There 
will be an era of reconciliation of all living faiths and 
systems, the era of all being in at-one-ment, or atone- 



ment, with God. Through the gates shall all people 
pass to the foot of God's throne. The throne is called 
by us the mercy-seat. Name of happy augury, for 
God's mercy shall wipe out the record of mankind's 
errors and strayings, the sad story of our unbrotherly 
actions. Then shall we better know God's ways and 
behold his glory more clearly, as it is written, " They 
shall all know me from the least of them unto the 
greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive 
their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more." 

The great religious teachers and found- » » 

i^earfortl, ers of the world — have they not secured '*'*^^''^''*'^^ 

their immortal places in the love and 
veneration of mankind by teaching the people 
how to find and use this large beneficence of heaven? 
They have not created ; they have discovered what 
existed before. Some have revealed more, others less, 
but all have revealed some truth of God by helping 
the world to see. They have asked nothing for 
themselves as finalities. They have lived and taught 
and suffered and died and risen again. That they 
might bring us to themselves? No, but that they 
might bring earth to God. " God Consciousness," 
to borrow a noble word from Calcutta, has been the 
goal of them all. It is still before all nations. There 
in the distance. Is it so great? Is the mountain of the 
Lord, rising before us into the serene and the cloud- 
less heavens? 

Let all the kingdoms and nations and religions of 
the world vie with each other in the rapidity of the 
divine ascent. Let them cast off the burdens and 



84 a attoru-s Df #aiti^- 

break the chains which retard their progress. Our 
fellowship will be closer as we approach the radiant 
summits, and there, on the heights, we shall be one in 
love and one in light, for God the infinite life is there, 
" of whom and through whom and to whom are all 
things, and to whom be the glory forever." 

My plea is for arbitration in- 
SJafeU Si)Ogen. stead of war. I am a Buddhist, 
u^Ph**A-> but please do not be so narrow- 

minded as to deny my opinion on account of the ex- 
pression from the tongue of one who belongs to a 
different nation, different creed, and different civiliza- 
tion. Why? Because the truth is only one. 

Our Buddha taught that all people entering 
into Buddhism are entirely equal in the same way as 
all rivers flowing into the sea become one, being all 
alike. He practiced this plan of brotherhood in the 
wide kingdom of India just 3,000 years ago. Not 
only Buddha alone, but Jesus Christ, as well as Con- 
fucius taught universal love and fraternity. Not only 
they taught, but we also acknowledge the glory of 
universal brotherhood. Then let us, the true follow- 
ers of Buddha, the true followers of Jesus Christ, the 
true followers of Confucius, and the followers of truth 
unite ourselves for the sake of helping the helpless 
and living glorious lives of brotherhood under the 
control of truth. 



Jesus Christ is unifying mankind 
iSoattltnatt* by his own teaching. Take, in way 
of illustration, his doctrine of love as 
set forth in his own mountain sermon. His beati- 
tudes, his precepts of reconciliation, non-resistance, 
love of enemies, his bidding each of us use, although 
in solitary closet prayer, the plural, "Our, we, us." 
Or take, particularly, Christ's summary of his moun- 
tain teaching as set forth in his own golden rule. It 
is Jesus Christ's positive contribution to sociology, or 
the philosophy of society. 

In the matter of the "solidarity of the nations," 
Paul, the Jew apostle to the Gentiles, towers over 
every other human hero, being himself the first con- 
spicuous human deputy to "The parliament of man, 
the federation of the world." 

Do you, then, not see that when every human 
being believes in Christ's doctrine of mankind, as set 
forth in his missionary commission, all mankind will 
indeed become one blessed unity ? 

Or take Christ's doctrine of the church, as set forth 
in his own parable of the sheep and the goats, a 
wonderful parable, the magnificent catholicity of which 
we miss, because our commentators and theologians, 
in their anxiety for standards, insist on applying it 
only to the good and the bad living in Christian 
lands, whereas it is a parable of all nations in all 
times. 

What unspeakable catholicity on the part of the 
son of man ! Oh, that his church had caught more 
of his spirit ; even as his apostle Peter did when, dis- 
cerning the unconscious Christianity of heathen 



/^*.4l3fcN^ 



86 a ati)orug n( jFaWj, 

Cornelius, he exclaimed : " Of a truth I perceive that 
God is no respecter of persons; but that in every 
nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteous- 
ness, is acceptable to him." 

Do you see, then, that when every human being 
recognizes in every ministering service to others a 
personal ministry to Jesus Christ himself, all mankind 
will indeed become one blessed unity ? 

Once more, and in a general summary of Christ's 
teaching, take his own epitome of the law as set forth 
in his answer to the lawyer's question : " Master, 
which is the greatest of the commandments?" And 
the master's answer was this : "Thou shalt love the 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
strength ; this is the first and great commandment. 
And a second like unto it is this : Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself. On these two command- 
ments hangeth the whole law and the prophets." 

Not that these two commandments are really two; 
they are simply a twofold commandment; each is the 
complement of the other; both being the obverse 
and the reverse legends engraved on the golden 
medallion of God's will. In other words, there is no 
real difference between Christianity and morality; for 
Christianity is morality looking Godward, morality is 
Christianity looking manward. Christianity is moral- 
ity celestialized. Thus on this twofold command- 
ment of love to God and love to man hangs, as a 
mighty portal hangs on its two massive hinges, not 
only the whole Bible from Genesis to Apocalypse, 
but also all true morality, natural as well as revealed, 



or, to express myself in language suggested by the 
undulatory theory : Love is the ethereal medium per- 
vading God's moral universe, by means of which are 
propagated the motions of his impulses, the heat of 
his grace, the light of his truth, the electricity of his 
activities, the magnetism of his nature, the affinities 
of his character, the gravitation of his will. In brief, 
love is the very definition of Deity himself : "God is 
love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God and 
God in him." 

I'm apt to think the man 

That could surround the sum of things, and spy 

The heart of God, and secrets of his empire, 

Would speak but love. With him the bright result 

Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, 

And make one thing of all theology. 

Do you not, then, see that when every human be- 
ing loves the Lord his God with all his heart and his 
neighbor as his own self all mankind will indeed 
become one blessed unity? 

Should I speak from the side of goodness fx ^i^'ji 
^Oftl. I should say that Buddhism teaches ten com- 
mandments, such as not to kill, not to steal, 
not to commit adultery, not to tell a falsehood, not to 
joke, not to speak evil of others, not to use double 
tongue, not to be greedy, neither be stingy, not to be 
cruel. Such commandments guide us into morality 
and goodness kindly and minutely by regulating our 
every-day personal action. Such commandments, 
by pacifying, purifying,and enlightening our passions, 
as well as our wisdom, shall in the run of its course 
make the present society, which is full of vice, hatred, 



88 a (t\)oxm oi jFaWj, 

and struggles of race, just like hungry dogs or wolves, 
a holy paradise of purity, peace, and love. The regu- 
lating power of such commandments shall turn this 
troublesome world into the spiritual kingdom of fra- 
ternity and humanity. 

You see that Buddhism does not quarrel with other 
religions about the truth. If there were a religion 
which teaches the truth in the same way Buddhism 
regards it as the truth of Buddhism disguised under 
the garment of the other religion. Buddhism never 
cares what the outside garment may be. It only 
aims to promote the purity and morality of mankind. 
It never asks who discovered it ? It only appreciates 
the goodness and righteousness. It helps the others 
in the purification of mankind. Buddha himself 
called Buddhism " a round,circulating religion," which 
means the truth common to every religion, regardless 
of the outside garment. The absolute truth must not 
be regarded as the monopolization of one religion of 
other. The truth is the broadest and widest. In 
short, Buddha teaches us that Buddhism is truth, 
the goddess of truth who is common to every religion, 
but who showed her true phase to us through the 
Buddha. 

And now let me tell you that this Buddhism has 
been a living spirit and nationality of our beloved 
Japan for so many years, and will be forever. Conse- 
quently, the Japanese people, who have been con- 
stantly guided by this beautiful star of truth, Buddha, 
are very hospitable to other religions and coun- 
tries and are entirely different from some other 
obstinate nations. I say this without the least boast. 



Nay, I say this from simplicity and purity of mind. 
The Japanese of thirty years since — that is since we 
opened our country for foreigners — will prove to you 
that our country is quite unequaled in the way of 
picking up what is good and right, even though done 
by others. We never say, who invented this? Which 
country brought that? The things of good nature 
have been most heartily accepted by us, regardless of 
race and nationality. Is this not the precious gift of 
the truth of Buddhism, the spirit of our country? 

I have no time to count, one by one, what Bud- 
dhism has done for Japan during the past eleven hun- 
dred years. But one word is enough — Buddhism is 
the spirit of Japan; her nationality is Buddhism. 
This is the true state of Japan. But it is a pity 
that we see some false and obstinate religionists, who, 
comparing these promising Japanese with the south 
islanders, have been so carelessly trying to introduce 
some false religion into our country. As I said 
before, we Buddhists welcome any who are earnest 
seekers after the truth, but can we keep silent to see 
the falsehood disturbing the peace and nationality of 
our country? The hateful rumor of the collision 
taking place between the two parties is sometimes 
spread abroad. We, from the standpoint of love to 
our country, cannot overlook this falsehood and viola- 
tion of peace and fraternity. Do you think it is right 
for one to urge upon a stranger to believe what he 
does not like, and call that stranger foolish, barbarous, 
ignorant and obstinate on account of the latter's 
denying the proposition made by the former? Do 
you think it is right for the former to excite the latter 



9^ a (tlfioxm of jFaiti). 

by calling so many names and producing social dis- 
order? I should say that such a one as that is against 
peace, love and order, fraternity and humanity. I 
should say that such a one as that is against the truth. 
He who is against the truth had better die. Justice 
does conquer injustice, and we are glad to see that the 
cloud of falsehood is gradually disappearing before 
the light of truth. Also you ladies and gentlemen 
who are assembled now here are the friends of truth. 
Nay, you are amidst the truth. You breathe the truth 
as you do the air. And you surely indorse ray opinion, 
because it is nothing but the truth. 

Here are some Buddhist teach- 
S)i^at1ttapalai, ings, as given in the words of Jesus, 
and claimed by Christianity: 

*' Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings 
and doeth them, he is like a man which built a house 
and laid the foundation on a rock. 

Why call ye me lord and do not the things which 
I say? 

Judge not, condemn not, forgive. 

Love your enemies and do good, hoping for noth- 
ing again, and your reward shall be great. 

Blessed are they that hear the word of God and 
keep it. 

Be ready, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour 
when ye think not. 

Sell all that ye have and give it to the poor. 

Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; 
take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God 
said unto him: Thou fool, this night thy soul shall 



be required of thee, then whose shall these things be 
which thou hast provided? 

The life is more than meat and the body more 
than raiment. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh 
not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple. 

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful 
in much. 

Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and who- 
soever shall lose his life shall preserve it. 

For behold the kingdom of God is within you. 

There is no man that hath left house or parents or 
brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God's 
sake who shall not receive manifold more in this 
present time. 

Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your 
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunken- 
ness and cares of this life. Watch ye therefore and 
pray always." 

Here are some Buddhist teachings for comparison: 

"Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time. 
Hatred ceases by love. This is an ancient law. Let 
us live happily, not hating those who hate us. Among 
men who hate us, let us live free from hatred. Let 
one overcome anger by love. Let him overcome evil 
by good. Let him overcome the greedy by liberality. 
Let the liar he overcome by truth. 

As the bee, injuring not the flower, its color or 
scent, flies away, taking the nectar, so let the wise 
man dwell upon the earth. 

Like a beautiful flower, full of color and full of 
scent, the fine words of him who acts accordingly 
are full of fruit. 



92 a Otljoruis ot dTaitlj. 

Let him speak the truth, let him not yield to 
anger, let him give when asked, even from the little 
he has. By these things he will enter heaven. 

The man who has transgressed one law and speaks 
lies and denies a future world, there is no sin he 
could not do. 

The real treasure is that laid up through charity 
and piety, temperance and self control; the treasure 
thus hid is secured, and passes not away. 

He who controls his tongue, speaks wisely and 
is not puffed up ; who holds up the torch to enlighten 
the world, his word is sweet. 

Let his livelihood be kindness, his conduct rignt- 
eousness. Then in the fullness of gladness, he will 
make an end of grief. 

Lie who is tranquil and has completed his course, 
who sees truth as it really is, but is not partial when 
there are persons of different faith to be dealt with, 
who with firm mind overcomes ill-will and covetous- 
ness, he is a true disciple. 

As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, pro- 
tects her son, her only son, so let each one cultivate 
good will without measure among all beings." 

Human brotherhood forms the fundamental teach- 
ing of Buddha, universal love and sympathy with all 
mankind and with animal life. Everyone is enjoined 
to love all beings as a mother loves her only child 
and takes care of it even at the risk of her life. The 
realization of the ideal of brotherhood is obtained 
when the first stage of holiness is realized. The idea 
of separation is destroyed and the oneness of life is 
recognized. There is no pessimism in the teachings 



I^armong of rtje ^ropi)etg, 93 

of Buddha, for he strictly enjoins on his holy disciples 
not even to suggest to others that life is not worth 
living. On the contrary, the usefulness of life is 
emphasized for the sake of doing good to self and 
humanity. 

From the fetich-worshiping savage to the highest 
type of humanity man naturally yearns for something 
better. And it is for this reason that Buddha incul- 
cated the necessity for self-reliance and independent 
thought. To guide humanity in the right path, a 
Tathagata (Messiah) appears from time to time. 

The teachings of the Buddha on evolution are clear 
and expansive. We are asked to look upon the cos- 
mos "as a continuous process unfolding itself in reg- 
ular order in obedience to natural laws. We see in it 
all, not a yawning chaos restrained by the constant 
interference from without of a wise and beneficent 
external power, but a vast aggregate of original ele- 
ments perpetually working out their own fresh re- 
distribution in accordance with their own inherent 
energies. He regards the cosmos as an almost infinite 
collection of material, animated by an almost infinite 
sum total of energy," which is called Akasa. I have 
used the above definition of evolution as given by 
Grant Allen in his "Life of Darwin," as it beautifully 
expresses the generalized idea of Buddhism. We do 
not postulate that man's evolution began from the 
protoplasmic stage ; but we are asked not to speculate 
on the origin of life, on the origin of the law of cause 
and effect, etc. So far as this great law is concerned 
we say that it controls the phenomena of human life 



94 a CIi)^5t:ug of jFaiti)* 

as well as those of external nature, the whole knowable 
universe forms one undivided whole. 

To the ordinary householder, whose highest happi- 
ness consists in being wealthy here and in heaven 
hereafter, Buddha inculcated a simple code of moral- 
ity. The student of Buddha's religion, from destroy- 
ing life lays aside the club and weapon. He is mod- 
est and full of pity. He is compassionate to all 
creatures that have life. He abstains from theft, and 
he passes his life in honesty and purity of heart. He 
lives a life of chastity and purity. He abstains from 
falsehood and injures not his fellow-man by deceit. 
Putting away slander he abstains from calumny. He 
is a peacemaker, a speaker of words that make for 
peace. Whatever word is humane, pleasant to the 
ear, lovely, reaching to the heart, such are the words 
he speaks. He abstains from harsh language. He 
abstains from foolish talk, he abstains from intoxicants 
and stupefying drugs. 

The student of the religion of Buddha, when he 
has faith in him, thinks " full of hindrances in house- 
hold life is a path defiled by passion. Pure as the air 
is the life of him who has renounced all worldly 
things. How difficult it is for the man who dwells at 
home to live the higher life in all its fullness, in all 
its purity, in all its freedom. Let me then cut off my 
hair and beard, let me clothe myself in orange- colored 
robes, let me go forth from a household life into the 
homeless state." He finds Buddha, forsaking his 
portion of wealth, forsaking his circle of relatives, he 
cuts off his hair and beard, he clothes himself in the 
orange-colored robes and he goes into the homeless 



l^armottB ot rije iPrnpfietjs* 95 

state, and then he passes a life of self-restraint, accord- 
ing to the rules of the order of the blessed one. Up- 
rightness is his object, and he sees danger in the least 
of those things he should avoid. He encompasses 
himself with holiness, in word and deed. He sus- 
tains his life by means that are quite pure. Good 
is his conduct, guarded the door of his senses, mind- 
ful and self-possessed, he is altogether happy. 

The student of pure religion abstains from earning 
a livelihood by the practice of low and lying arts, viz., 
all divination, interpretation of dreams, palmistry, 
astrology, crystal prophesying, charms of all sorts. 
Buddha also says : 

" Just as a mighty trumpeter makes himself heard in 
all the four directions without difficulty, even so of all 
things that have life, there is not one that the student 
passes by or leaves aside, but regards them all with 
mind set free and deep-felt pity, sympathy, and equa- 
nimity. He lets his mind pervade the whole world 
with thoughts of love." — Buddhism and Christianity 
Compared. 

Cherishing the light which God has ^ ^ 
l^arrote. given us and eager to send this light 1 01/2^^^-'>f=i-«^ 

every-whither, we do not believe that 
God, the eternal spirit, has left himself without wit- 
ness in non-Christian nations. There is a divine 
light enlightening every man. 

One accent of the holy ghost 
The heedless world has never lost. 

Professor Max Miiller, of Oxford, who has been a 
friend of our movement and has sent a contribution 



96 a OHjoru^ of dFaitf). 

to this parliament, has gathered together in his last 
volume a collection of prayers, Egyptian, Accadian, 
Babylonian, Vedic, Avestic, Chinese, Mohammedan 
and modern Hindu, which make it perfectly clear 
that the sun which shone over Bethlehem and Calvary 
has cast some celestial illumination and called forth 
some devout and holy aspirations by the Nile and the 
Ganges, in the deserts of Arabia, and by the waves of 
the Yellow Sea. 

It is perfectly evident to all illuminated minds 
that we should cherish loving thoughts of all people 
and humane views of all the great and lasting religions, 
and that whoever would advance the cause of his own 
faith must first discover and gratefully acknowledge 
the truths contained in other faiths. 

It seems to me that the spirits of just and good 
men hover over this assembly. I believe that the 
spirit of Paul is here, the zealous missionary of 
Christ, whose courtesy, wisdom, and unbounded tact 
were manifest when he preached Jesus and the resur- 
rection beneath the shadows of the Parthenon. I be- 
lieve the spirit of the wise and humane, Buddha is 
here, and of Sokrates, the searcher after truth, and of 
Jeremy Taylor and John Milton and Roger Williams 
and Lessing, the great apostles of toleration. I be- 
lieve that the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, who sought 
for a church founded on love for God and man, is 
not far from us, and the spirit of Tennyson and Whit- 
tier and of Phillips Brooks, who looked forward to 
this Parliament as the realization of a noble idea. 

When, a few days ago, I met for the first time the 
delegates who have come to us from Japan, and 



l^armauB of tfft ilrnpijetis. 97 

shortly after the delegates who have come to us from 
India, I felt that the arms of human brotherhood had 
reached almost around the globe. But there is some- 
thing stronger than human love and fellowship, and 
what gives us the most hope and happiness to-day is 
our confidence that 

The whole round world is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 

— J^rom the Chairman! s Opening Address. 



HOLY BIBLES. 



99 






Out from the heart of nature rolled 
The burdens of the Bible old ; 
The litanies of nations came, 
Like the volcano's tongue of flame, 
Up from the burning core below, — 
The canticles of love and woe. 

The word unto the prophet spoken 
Was writ on tables yet unbroken ; 
The word by seers or sybils told, 
In groves of oak, or fanes of gold, 
Still floats upon the morning wind, 
Still whispers to the willing mind. 
One accent of the Holy Ghost 
The heedless world hath never lost. 



R. W, Emerson. 



100 



HOLY BIBLES. 



True science is as much the friend 
HBtUtltmond* of true religion as any branch of truth, 
and in all the struggles between them 
in the past they have both come out enriched, purified 
and enlarged. Evolution, has swept over the doctrine 
of creation, and left it untouched except for the 
better. Science has discovered how God made the 
world. 

Fifty years ago Darwin wrote in dismay to Hooker 
that the old theory of specific creation, that God 
made all species apart and introduced them into the 
world one by one, was melting away before his eyes. 
One of the last books on Darwinism, that of Alfred 
Wallace, says in its opening chapter these words : 
"The whole scientific and literary world, even the 
whole educated public, accepts as a matter of com- 
mon knowledge the origin of species from other like 
species by the ordinary processes of natural birth." 

Theology, after a period of hesitation, accepts 
this version. There is only one theory of creation in 
the field, and that is evolution. Evolution has dis- 
covered nothing new and professes to know nothing 
new. Evolution, instead of being opposed to crea- 
tion, assumes creation. Law is not the cause of the 
order of the world, but the expression of it. Evolu- 
tion only professes to give an account of the develop- 

lOI 



I02 a itti)Drus of Jfaiti^. 

ment of the world ; it does not offer to account 
for it. 

Some of the protests of science against theism are 
directed, not against true theism, but against its super- 
stitious and irrational forms, which it is the business 
of science to question. What Tyndall calls a fierce 
and distorted theism is as much the enemy of Chris- 
tianity as of science ; and if science can help 
Christianity to destroy it it does well. What we have 
really to fight against is both unfounded belief and 
unfounded unbelief, and there is perhaps just as much 
of one as of the other floating in current literature. 
As Mr. Ruskin says : *' You have to guard against 
the darkness of the two opposite prides — the pride of 
faith, which imagines that the character of the deity 
can be proved by its convictions, and the pride of 
science, which imagines that the deity can be 
explained by its analysis." 

As to the specific revelations of the Old and New 
Testaments, evolution has already given the world 
what amounts to a new Bible. Its peculiarity is, that 
in its form it is like the world in which it is found. It 
is a word, but its root is now known, and we have 
other words from the same root. Its substance is 
still the unchanged language of heaven, yet it is writ- 
ten in a familiar tongue. This Bible is not a book 
which has been made — it has grown. Hence it is no 
longer a mere word book nor a compendium of doc- 
trines, but a nursery of growing truths. 

Like nature, it has successive strata and valley and 
hilltop and atmosphere, and rivers are flowing still, 
and here and there a place which is a desert, and fos- 



I^olg ISiftle^. 1^3 



sils, whose true forms are the stepping-stones to 
higher things. It is a record of inspired deeds as 
well as of inspired words, a series of inspired facts in 
the matrix of human history. This is not the product 
of any destructive movement, nor is this transformed 
book in any sense a mutilated Bible. All this change 
has taken place, it may be without the elimination of 
a book or the loss of an important word. It is 
simply a transformation by a method whose main 
warrant is that the book lend itself to it. Other 
questions are moving the world just now, but one has 
only time to name them. The doctrine of immor- 
tality, the relation of the person of Christ to evolu- 
tion, and the operation of the holy spirit are attract- 
ing attention and lines of new thought have ever been 
suggested. — Christianity and Evolution. 

The congress which I have the honor \j^^ /*^rv 
(Katpittt^t, to address in this paper is a unique as- 
semblage. It could not have met be- 
fore the nineteenth century, and no country in the 
world possesses the needful boldness of conception 
and organizing energy save the United States ot 
America. History does indeed record other endeav- 
ors to bring the religions of the world into line. 
The Christian fathers of the fourth century credited 
Demetrius Phalereus, the large-minded librarian of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 250 B. C, with the 
attempt to procure the sacred books not only of the 
Jews, but also of the Ethiopians, Indians, Persians, 
Elamites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Romans, 
Phcenecians, Syrians, and Greeks. The great Em- 



104 a aii^orus of jFaitl^, 

peror Akba (the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth) 
invited to his court Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, 
Brahmins, and Zoroastrians. He listened to their dis- 
cussions, he weighed their arguments, until, says one 
of the native historians, there grew gradually as the 
outline en a stone the conviction in his heart that 
there were sensible men in all religions. Different 
indeed is this from the curt condemnation by the 
English lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, who said, a 
hundred years ago : " There are two objects of curi- 
osity, the Christian world and the Mohammedan 
world, all the rest may be considered barbarous." 
This congress meets, I trust, in the spirit of that 
wise old man who wrote : '' One is born a Pagan, 
another a Jew, a third a Mussulman. The true phil- 
osopher sees in each a fellow seeking after God." 
With this conviction of the sympathy of religions, I 
offer some remarks founded on the study of the 
world's sacred books. 

One after another, our age has witnessed the res- 
urrection of ancient literatures. Philology has put 
the key of language into our hands. Shrine after 
shrine in the world's greal temple has been entered; 
the songs of praise, the commands of law, the lit- 
anies of penitence have been fetched from the tombs 
of the Nile or the mounds of Mesopotamia, or the 
sanctuaries of the Ganges. The Bible of humanity 
has been recorded. What will it teach us? I desire to 
suggest to this congress that it brings home the need 
of a conception of revelation unconfined to any 
particular religion, but capable of application in 
diverse modes to all. 



I^olg iSiftles. i°5 

The sacred books of the world are necessarily 
varied in character and contents. Yet no group of 
scriptures fails to recognize in the long run the 
supreme importance of conduct. Here is that which 
in the control of action, speech, and thought is of the 
highest significance for life. This consciousness some- 
times lights up even the most arid wastes of sacrificial 
detail. 

All nations do not pass through the same stages of 
moral evolution within the same periods or mark them 
by the same crises. The development of one is slower, 
of another more swift. One people seems to remain 
stationary for milleniums, another advances with each 
century. But in so far as they have both consciously 
reached the same moral relations and attained the 
same insight the ethical truth which they have gained 
has the same validity. Enter an Egyptian tomb of the 
century of Moses* birth, and you will find that the soul 
as it came before the judges in the other world was 
summoned to declare its innocence in such words as 
these : " I am not a doer of what is wrong, I am not 
a robber, I am not a murderer, I am not a liar, I am 
not unchaste, I am not the causer of others' tears." Is 
the standard of duty here implied less noble than that 
of the decalogue? Are we to depress the one as 
human and exalt the other as divine? More than five 
hundred years before Christ the Chinese sage, Lao- 
Tsze, bade his disciples, " Recompense injury with 
kindness"; and at the same great era, faithful in noble 
utterance, Gautama the Buddha said, " Let man over- 
come anger by liberality and the liar by truth." Is 
this less a revelation of a higher ideal than the injunc- 



^o6 a atf)(irug ot dfaitl). 

tion of Jesus, " Resist not evil, but whosoever smiteth 
thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also." 
The fact surely is that we cannot draw any partition 
line through the phenomena of the moral life and 
affirm that on one side lie the generalizations of 
earthly reason, and on the other the declarations of 
heavenly truth. The utterances in which the heart of 
man has embodied its glimpses of the higher vision 
are not all of equal merit, but they must be explained 
in the same way. The moralists of the Flowery Land, 
even before Confucius, were not slow to perceive this, 
though they could not apply it over so wide a range 
as that now open to us. Heaven in giving birth to 
the multitudes of the people, to every faculty and 
relationship affixed its law. The people possess this 
normal virtue. 

In the ancient records gathered up in the Shu 
King, the Duke of Chow related how Hea would not 
follow the leading of Shang Ti — supreme ruler of God. 
" In the daily business of life and the most common 
actions," wrote the commentator, "we feel, as it were, 
an influence exerted on the intelligence, the emotions, 
and the heart. Even the most stupid are not without 
their gleams of light." This is the leading idea of Ti, 
and there is no place where it is not felt. Modern 
ethical theory, in the forms which it has assumed at 
the hands of Butler, Kant, and Martineau, recognizes 
this element. 

Theologies may be many, but religion is but one. 
It was after this that the Vedic seers were groping 
when they looked at the varied worship around them, 
and cried : " They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, 



Agni ; sages name variously him who is but one "; or 
again, " The sages in their hymns give many forms to 
him who is but one." It was this essential fact with 
which the early Christians were confronted as they 
saw that the Greek poets and philosophers had reached 
truths about the being of God not at all unlike those 
of Moses and the prophets. Their solution was 
worthy of freedom and universality of the spirit of 
Jesus. They were for recognizing and welcoming 
truth wherever they found it, and they referred it 
without hesitation to the ultimate source of wisdom 
and knowledge, the Logos, at once the minor thought 
and the uttered word of God. The martyr Justin 
affirmed that the Logos had worked through Socrates, 
as it had been present in Jesus ; nay, with a wider out- 
look, he spoke of the seed of the Logos implanted in 
every race of man. In virtue of this fellowship, there- 
fore, all truth was revelation and akin to Christ him- 
self. " Whatever things were said among all men are 
the property of us Christians." The Alexandrian 
teachers shared the same conception. The divine in- 
telligence pervaded human life andhistory,and showed 
itself in all that was best in beauty, goodness, truth. 
The way of truth was like a mighty river ever flowing, 
and as it passed it was ever receiving fresh streams on 
this side and that. Nay, so clear in Clement's view 
was the work of Greek philosophy that he not only 
regarded it like law and gospel as a gift of God, it 
was an actual covenant as much as that of Sinai, pos- 
sessed of its own justifying power, or following the 
great generalization of St. Paul. The law was a tutor 
to bring the Jews to Christ. Clement added that phi- 




io8 a (ti^oxm of jFaitf), 

losophy wrought the same heaven-appointed service 
for the Greeks. May we not use the same great con- 
ception over other fields of the history of religion ? 
" In all ages," affirmed the author of the wisdom of 
Solomon, " wisdom entering into holy souls maketh 
them friends of God and prophets." So we may 
claim in its wisest application the saying of Moham- 
med : " Every nation has a creator of the heavens — 
to which they turn in prayer — it is God who turneth 
them toward it. Hasten, then, emulously after good 
wheresoever ye be. God will one day bring you all 
together." 

We shall no longer, then, speak like a distinguished 
Oxford professor of the three chief false religions — 
Brahmanism, Buddhism, Islam. In so far as the soul 
discerns God, the reverence, adoration, trust, which 
constitutes the moral and spiritual elements of its 
faith, are in fact identical through every variety of 
creed. They may be more or less clearly articulate, 
less or more crude and confused, or pure and eleva- 
ted, but they are in substance the same. — Lessons 
from the Sacred Books of the World. 

Cut loose from the rest of the Biblical 
i^O))Ut* writings, many a passage concerning God 
and man still has an exclusively national 
character, betraying narrowness of view. But pre- 
sented and read in its entirety, the Bible begins and 
ends with man. Do not the prophets weep, pray, and 
hope for the Gentiles as well as for Israel? Do not 
the Psalms voice the longing and yearning of man? 
What is Job but the type of suffering, struggling, and 



I^olg iSiftleiBi. 109 



self-asserting man? It is the wisdom, the doubt and 
the pure love of man that King Solomon voices in 
prose and poetry; neither is true priesthood, nor 
prophecy, monopolized by the tribe of Abraham. Be- 
hold Melchisedec, Salem's priest, holding up his hand 
to bless the patriarch! And do not Balaam's prophetic 
words match those of any of Israel's seers? None 
can read the Bible with sympathetic spirit but feel 
that the wine garnered therein is stronger than the 
vessel containing it; that the Jew who speaks and 
acts, preaches and prophesies, therein represents the 
interests and principles of humanity. When the Book 
of Books was handed forth to the world it was offered 
in the words of God to Abraham to be a blessing to 
all families of man on earth; it was to give man one 
God, one hope, and one goal and destiny. Only the 
monotheistic faith of the Bible established the bonds 
of human brotherhood. It was the consciousness of 
God's indwelling in man or the Biblical teaching of 
man's being God's child that rendered humanity one. 
There is no partiality with God. The weaker 
member of the human household, therefore, must be 
treated with greater compassion and love, and every 
inequality adjusted as far as our powers reach. " If 
thou seest one in distress, ask not who he is. Even 
though he be thine enemy, he is still thy brother, 
appeals to thy sympathy; thou canst not hide thine 
eyes; I, thy God, see thee." Alongside of this 
Mosaic law can the question be yet asked: Who is 
my neighbor? Thou mayst not love him because he 
hateth thee. Yet, as fellow-man, thou must put thy- 
self into his place and thou darest no longer harm 



no 



a (ti}oxm of dFaitf). 



nor hate him. Even if he be a criminal, he is thy 
brother still, claiming sympathy and leniency. Sin- 
ner or stranger, slave or sufferer, skeptic or saint, he 
is son of the same Father in heaven. The God who 
hath once redeemed thee will also redeem him. 

Are these principles and maxims of the New Testa- 
ment? I read them in the Old. I learned them from 
the Talmud. I found their faint echo in the Koran. 
The Merciful One of Mohammed enjoins charity and 
compassion no less than does the Holy One of Isaiah 
and the Heavenly Father of Jesus. We have been too 
rash, too harsh, too uncharitable in judging other 
sects and creeds. "We men judge nations and classes 
too often by the bad examples they produce; God 
judges them by their best and noblest types," is an 
exquisite saying of the Rabbis. Is there a race or a 
religion that does not cultivate one great virtue to 
unlock the gates of bliss for all its followers? Hear 
the Psalmist exclaim: "This is the gate of the Lord; 
the righteous enter into it." No priest, nor Levite, 
nor Israel's people enjoy any privilege there. The 
kind Samaritan, as Jesus puts it in his parable; the 
good and just among all men, as the Rabbis express 
it find admission. No monopoly of salvation for 
any creed. Righteousness opens the door for all 
nations. 

Is this platform not broad enough to hold every 
creed? Must not every system of ethics find a place 
in this great brotherhood with whatever virtue or 
ideal it emphasizes? Is here not scope given for 
every honest endeavor and each human craving for 
whatever cheers and inspires, ennobles and refines 



I^olg mue&. 



J 1 1 



man, for every vocation, profession, or skill; for what- 
ever lifts dust-born man to higher standards of good- 
ness, to higher states of blessedness? 

Too long, indeed, have Chinese walls, reared by- 
nations and sects, kept man from his brother, to rend 
humanity asunder. Will the principle of toleration 
suffice? Or shall Lessing's parable of the three rings 
plead for equality of church, mosque, and synagogue? 
What, then, about the rest of the creeds, the great 
Parliament of Religions? And what a poor plea for 
the father, if, from love, he cheats his children, to find 
at the end he has but cheated himself of their love. 
No. Either all the rings are genuine and have the 
magic power of love, or the father is himself a fraud. 
Trust and love, in order to enrich and uplift, must be 
firm and immutable, as God himself. If truth, love, 
and justice be the goal, they must be my fellow-man's 
as well as mine. And should not every act and every 
step of man and humanity lead onward to Zion's hill, 
which shall stand high above all mounts of vision and 
aspiration, above every single truth and knowledge, 
faith and hope, the mountain of the Lord. 

In order to show the greater contrast in 
j^Bhtt* modern China and its Confucianism com- 
pared with China in the times of Confucius 
and Mencius and their teachings, it seems best to 
invite both Confucius and Mencius to a short visit in 
the Middle Kingdom. On their arrival Mencius 
began to congratulate his great master on the success 
of his sage teachings, but Confucius would not accept 
congratulations until he had learned the cause of the 
success. 



I I '2 



a atiioxm ot jFaitft* 



He found that the spread of Confucianism was 
brought about, not by the peaceful attraction of 
neighboring states, but by bloody wars and suppres- 
sion. The constitution of the state was changed and 
ruins were everywhere. He noticed splendid temples 
dedicated to gods he had never heard of, while around 
these magnificent homes lived people who were poor 
and famine-stricken or who spent their lives opium- 
smoking and gambling. He found that benevolent 
institutions were mismanaged and that the money 
which belonged to the poor found its way into the 
pockets of the respectable managers dressed in long 
silk robes. 

There had been changes in dress which chilled the 
hearts of Confucius and Mencius. They sighed when 
they saw women with distorted feet and men wearing 
queues. As they wandered along they found that 
sacrifices were made at graves, and that everyone 
bowed down before the genii of good luck. In the 
colleges they found that most of the time was spent in 
empty routine and phraseology. There was no basis 
for the formation of character. 

Passing by a large bookstore they entered and 
looked about them in surprise at the thousands of 
books on the shelves. "Alas!" said Confucius, **I 
find here the same state of things I found in China 
twenty-four hundred years ago. The very thing that 
induced me to clear the ancient literature of thousands 
of useless works, retaining only a few, filling five vol- 
umes, worthy to be transmitted to after ages. Is 
nothing left of my spirit among the myriads of schol- 
ars professing to be my followers ? Why do they not 



clear away the heaps of rubbish that have accumulated 
during twenty centuries ? They should transmit the 
essence of former ages to the young generation as an 
inheritance of wisdom which they have put into prac- 
tice, and so increase." 

Going into a gentleman's house, they were invited 
to take chairs, and looked in vain for the mat spread 
on the ground. Tobacco pipes were handed to the 
sages, but they declined to smoke, saying that the 
ancients valued pure air most highly. Seeing many 
arches erected in honor of famous women, they won- 
dered that the fame of women should enter the streets 
and be proclaimed on highways. "The rule of anti- 
quity is," said Confucius, "that nothing should be 
known of women outside the female departments, 
either good or evil." Then they found out that most 
of the arches were for females who had committed 
suicide, or who had cut a little flesh from their own 
bodies, from the arm or the thigh, as medicine for a 
sick parent. Others had refused marriage to nurse 
their old parents. Arches were erected to a few who 
had reached an old age, and to a very few who had 
performed charitable works. 

Neither Confucius nor Mencius raised any objec- 
tion to these arches, though they did not agree to 
some of the reasons given for their erection. They 
did not approve of the imperial sanction of the Taoist 
pope, the favors shown to Buddhism, and especially 
to the Lamas in Peking, the widespread superstition 
of spiritism, the worship of animals, fortune telling, 
excesses and abuses in ancestral worship, theatrical 
performances, dragon festivals, idol processions, and 
8 



114 a ittJ)oni!8 of j^aitf). 

displays in the street, infanticide, prostitution, retribu- 
tion made a prominent move in morals, codification 
of penal law, publication of the statutes of the empire 
and cessation of the imperial tours of inspection. 

Then they noted the progress of the West, the rail- 
roads, the steam engines and steamers of immense 
size moving on quickly even against wind and tide. 
"Oh, my little children," said Confucius, "all ye who 
honor my name, the people of the West are in advance 
of you as the ancients were in advance of the rest of 
the world. Therefore, learn what they have good, and 
correct their evil by what you have better. This is my 
meaning of the great principle of reciprocity." 

We are living in a scientific age, which 
iSttggiS. demands that every traditional statement 
^f%rt\K^^ shall be tested. Science explores the earth 

in its height and breadth in search of truth ; it explores 
the heavens in order to solve the mysteries of the uni- 
verse ; it investigates all the monuments of history, 
whether of stone or of metal; and that man must be 
lacking in intelligence, or in observation at least, who 
imagines that the sacred books of the Christian relig- 
ion, or the institutions of the Christian church shall 
escape the criticism of this age. It will not do to 
oppose science with religion or criticism with faith. 

Criticism makes it evident that the faith which 
shrinks from criticism is a faith so weak and uncertain 
that it excites suspicion as to its life and reality. 
Science goes on confident that every form of religion 
which resists this criticism will ere long crumble into 
dust. All departments of human investigation sooner 



fj^nlg 13iftles. "5 



or later come in contact with the Christian scriptures ; 
all find something that accords with them or conflicts 
with them, and the question forces itself upon us, 
can we maintain the truthfulness of the Holy Scrip- 
tures in the face of modern science ? We are obliged 
to admit that there are scientific errors in the Bible, 
errors of astronomy, geology, zoology, botany, and 
anthropology. In all these respects there is no evi- 
dence that the authors of the Scriptures had any other 
knowledge than that possessed by their contempora- 
ries Their statements are such as indicate ordinary 
observation of the phenomena of life. They had not 
that insight, that grasp of conception and power of 
expression in these matters which they exhibited 
when writing concerning matters of religion. 

What should be done first of all is to 
^itlt» trace religion in the course of its develop- 
ment, that is to say in its life, to inquire 
what every family of religions, as for instance the 
Aryan and Semitic, what every particular religion, 
what the great religious persons have contributed to 
this development, to what laws and conditions this 
development is subjected, and in what it really con- 
sists ? Next the religious phenomena, ideas and 
dogmas, feeling and inclinations, forms of worship 
and religious acts are to be examined, to know from 
what wants of the soul they have sprung and of what 
aspirations they are the expression. But these 
researches, without which one can not penetrate into 
the nature of religion nor form a conception of its 
origin, can not bear lasting fruit, unless the compara- 



"6 a atlfioxm i]f jFaiti). 

tive study of religious individualities lie at the root 
of them. 

It is not required of every student of the science 
of religion that he should be an architect ; yet, though 
his study may be confined within the narrow bounds 
of a small section, if he does not lose sight of the 
chief purpose, and if he applies the right method, he 
too will contribute not unworthily to the great com- 
mon work. — T/ie Study of Comparative Theology. 

Where shall one go, if not to the Bible, 
ILgOlt. to find the noblest literature of the soul? 
Where shall one find so well expressed as in 
the Psalms the longing for God and a deep satisfac- 
tion in his presence? Where is burning indignation 
against wrong-doing more strongly portrayed than in 
the Prophets? Where such a picture as the Gospel 
gives of love that consumes itself in sacrifice? The 
highest hopes and moods of the soul reached such 
attainment among the Jews two thousand years ago 
that the intervening ages have not yet shownone step 
in advance. 

Viewed as a handbook of ethics the Bible has a 
power second only to its exalted position as a classic 
of the soul. The " ten words," though negatively 
expressed, are, in their second half, an admirable 
statement of the fundamental relations of man to man. 
Paul's eulogy of love is an unmatched masterpiece of 
the foundation principle of right living. The adop- 
tion of the golden rule by all men would banish crime 
and convert earth into a paradise. 

The characters depicted in the Bible are in their 



I^tilg ISitileg. "7 



way no less effective than the teachings regarding 
ethics and religion. Indeed, that which is so admira- 
ble in these characters is the rare combination of 
ethics and religion, which finds in them expression. 
In Abraham we see hospitality and faith attaining to 
adequate expression. Moses is the pattern of the 
unselfish, state-building patriot, who despised hard- 
ships because " he endured as seeing him who is invisi- 
ble." Jeremiah will forever be inspiration to reform- 
ers whose lot is cast in degenerate days. Paul is the 
synonym of self-denying zeal, which can be content 
with nothing less than a gigantic effort to carry good 
news to the entire world. — Jewish Contributions to 
Civilization. 



What if the deathless Jew be present i-^-W" 



S&,ZXC^Z%* then among the earth's peoples? Would 
ye begrudge his presence? His work in 
the world, the Bible he gave it, shall plead for him. 
And Israel, God's first-born, who, as his prophets 
foretold, was for centuries despised and rejected of 
men, knowing sorrows, acquainted with grief and 
esteemed stricken by God for his own backslidings, 
wounded besides through others' transgressions, 
bruised through others' injuries, shall be but fulfilling 
his destiny to lead back his brothers to the Father. 
For that we were chosen; for that we are God's 
servants or ministers. Yes, the attitude of Historical 
Judaism to the world will be in the future, as in the 
past — helping mankind with His Bible — until the 
gates of earthly Paradise shall be reconstructed by 
mankind's joint efforts, and all nations whom Thou, 



? 



ii8 a atf)tiru!5 of jFaiti^. 

God, hast made shall go through and worship before 
Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy name! 

I am a Christian, and must needs look 
jJ^'^LJ^'^ '^tXX^* at things from a Christian point of view. 

But that fact should not hinder the broadest 
observation. Christian scholars have for centuries 
admired the poems of Homer and will never lose 
interest in the story of Odysseus, the myriad-minded 
Greek, who traversed the roaring seas, touched many 
a foreign shore and observed the habitations and 
customs of many men. Will they be likely to dis- 
card the recently deciphered Accadian hymns and 
Assyrian penitential psalms? Is it probable that men 
who can devote studious years to the philosophy of 
Plato and Aristotle will care nothing about the invo- 
cations of the old Persian Avesta, the Vedic hymns, 
the doctrines of Buddha and the maxims of Con- 
fucius? Nay, I repeat it, I am a Christian; therefore, 
I think there is nothing human or divine in any 
literature of the world that I can afford to ignore. 
My own New Testament scriptures enjoin the follow- 
ing words as a solemn commandment: "Whatever 
things are true, whatever things are worthy of honor, 
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, 
whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of 
good report, if there be any virtue and if there be 
any praise exercise reason upon these things." 






We must look for Christianity in lit- .» r!^ !/ 

J^unger. erature, not as though listening to one ^j*^^ 

singer after another, but rather to the 
whole choir. The Fifth Symphony cannot be ren- 
dered by a violin or trumpet, but only by the whole 
orchestra. 

The range is wide and long. It reaches from 
Dante to Whittier ; from Shakespeare to Burns and 
Browning ; from Spenser to Longfellow and Lowell ; 
from Cowper to Shelley and Wordsworth ; from Mil- 
ton to Matthew Arnold ; from Bunyan to Hawthorne 
and Victor Hugo and Tolstoi ; from Thomas a Kem- 
pis and Pascal to Kant and Jonathan Edwards and Les- 
sing and Schleiermacher and Coleridge and Maurice 
and Martineau and Robertson and Fairbairns; from 
Jeremy Taylor and South and Barrow and the Cam- 
bridge Platonists to Emerson and Amiel and Carlyle ; 
from Bacon to Lotze ; from Addison and Johnson to 
Goethe and Scott and Thackeray and Dickens and 
George Eliot. 

The later poets seldom forego their birthright of 
spiritual vision. Cowper verged in the same direction, 
but saved himself by the humanity he wove into his 
verse — a clear and almost new note in the world's 
music. But the poets who followed him, closing up 
the last century and covering the first of this, served 
Christianity chiefly by protesting against the theology 
in which it was ensnared. The services rendered to 
the faith by such poets as Burns and Byron and Shel- 
ley and William Blake are very great. It is no longer 
in order to apologize for lines which all wish had not 
been written. It were more in order to require apol- 



I20 



a aii)ciru!3 of jFaWj, 



ogy from the theology which called out the satire of 
Burns, and from the ecclesiasticism that provoked the 
young Shelley even to atheism ; the poet was not the 
real atheist. 

If Christianity is a spirit that seeks to inform 
everything with which it comes in contact, the process 
has that clear and growing illustration in the poets of 
the century. In one way or another — some in neg- 
ative, but more in positive ways — they have striven to 
enthrone love in man and for man as the supreme 
law, and they have found this law in God, who works 
in righteousness for its fulfillment. The roll might 
be called from Wordsworth and Coleridge down to 
Whittier, and but few would need to be counted 
out. 

The marked examples are Tennyson and Brown- 
ing, and of the two I think Tennyson is the clearer. 
Speaking roughly and taking his work as a whole, I 
regard it as more thoroughly informed with Chris- 
tianity than that of any other master in literature. I 
do not forget the overwhelming positiveness of Brown- 
ing, whose faith is the very evidence of things unseen 
and whose hope is like a contagion. It is this very 
positiveness that removes him a little way from us; it is 
high, and we cannot quite attain to it. Tennyson, on 
the contrary, speaks on the level of our finite hearts; 
believes and doubts with us, debates the problems of 
faith with us, and such victories as he wins are also 
ours. Browning leaves us behind as he storms his 
way into the heaven of his unclouded hope, but 
Tennyson stays with us in a world which, being such 
as it is, is never without a shadow. The more clearly 



min kittles. 



121 



we see the eternal the more deeply are we enshrouded 
in the finite. 

The poets are the real defenders of the Faith, 
the prophets and priests whose succession never fails. 
Leslie Stephen writes an enticing plea for agnosticism, 
and seems to sweep the universe clean of faith and 
God; we read Tennyson's "Higher Pantheism," "The 
Two Voices," "In Memoriam," or Browning's "Saul," 
" Death in the Desert," or Wordsworth's odes on Im- 
mortality and Duty, or Whittier's " My Psalm," and 
the plea for agnosticism fades out. In some way it 
seems truer and better to believe. 

Such prophets never cease, though their coming is 
uncertain. In the years just gone three have "lost 
themselves in the light" they saw so clearly, and the 
succession will not fail. So long as a century can 
produce such interpreters of Christianity as Tennyson 
and Browning and Whittier, it will not vanish from 
the earth. 

Literature, with few exceptions, all inspired litera- 
ture, stands squarely upon humanity and insists upon 
it on ethical grounds and for ethical ends, and this is 
essential Christianity. 

Literature in its highest forms is unworldly. It is 
a protest against the worldly temper, the worldly 
motive, the worldly habit. It appeals to the spiritual 
and the invisible; it readily allies itself with all the 
greater Christian truths and hopes, and becomes their 
mouthpiece. 

The greater literature is prophetic and optimistic. 
Its keynote is, "All is well"; and it accords with the 
Christian secret, "Behold, I make all things new." 



122 a atffoxu^ oi jFaiti^. 

Literature, in its higher ranges, is the correction 
of poor thinking — that which is crude, extravagant, 
superstitious, hard, one-sided. This is especially true 
in the realm of theological thought. 

A theology that insists on a transcendent God, 
who sits above the world and spins the thread of its 
affairs as a spinner at a wheel ; that holds to such a 
conception of God because it involves the simplest of 
several perplexing propositions ; that resents imman- 
ence as involving pantheism ; that makes two cata- 
logues, the natural and the supernatural, and puts 
everything it can understand into one list and every- 
thing it cannot understand into the other, and then 
makes faith turn upon accepting this division, such a 
theology does not command the assent of those minds 
who express themselves in literature ; thepoet, the man 
of genius, the broad and universal thinker pass it by ; 
they stand too near God to be deceived by such ren- 
derings of His truth. All the while, in every age, 
these children of light have made their protest ; and 
it is through them that the chief gains in theological 
thought have been secured. 

For the most part the greater names in literature 
have been true to Christ, and it is the Christ in them 
that has corrected theology, redeeming it from dog- 
matism and making it capable of belief, not clear 
perhaps, but profound. — Christiauity as Interpreted 
by Literature, 



I^olg ^iUt^. 123 



A certain ship full of Mohammedan ri ^ * # 
i©|)antll. pilgrims was going to Mecca. On its way f 
a Portuguese vessel captured it. Amongst ' 
the booty were some copies of the Koran. The Portu- 
guese hanged these copies of the Koran round the 
necks of dogs and paraded these dogs through the 
streets of Ormuz. It happened that this very Portu- 
guese ship was captured by the emperor's men and in 
it were found copies of the Bible. The love of Akbar 
for his mother is well known, and his mother was a 
zealous Mohammedan, and it pained her very much 
to hear of the treatment of the sacred book of the 
Mohammedans in the hands of the Christians, and she 
wanted Akbar to do the same with the Bible. But 
this great man replied : " Mother, these ignorant 
men do not know the value of the K.oi a 1 and they 
treated it in a manner which is the outcome of igno- 
rance. But I know the glory of the Koran and the 
Bible both and I cannot degenerate myself in the way 
they did." 



UNITY IN ETHICS. 



«*s 



Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increasel) 

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 

And saw within the moonlight in his room, 

Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom. 

An angel writing in a book of gold ; 

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold. 

And to the presence in his room he said, 

"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head 

And with a look made of all sweet accord, 

Answered, ." The names of those who love the Lord." 

"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so," 

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 

But cheerily still ; and said, " I pray thee, then. 

Write me as one who loves his fellow-men." 

The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 

It came again, with a great awakening light. 

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed, 

And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 

Leigh Hunt. 



I2(i 



UNITY IN ETHICS. 



We who have attended the sessions r . ♦ . ^ 
ff^fiVXtXit, of these congresses, have, I think, ^^ r 

learned one great lesson, viz.: That 
there is a unity of religion underlying the diversity 
of religions, and that the important work before us 
is not so much to make men accept one or the other 
of the various religions of the world, as to induce 
them to accept religion in a broad and universal 
sense. This lesson which we have learned here, we 
shall, I hope, teach elsewhere, so that from the Hall of 
Columbus as a center, it will spread and spread and 
spread, until it at last reaches the fartherest limits 
of the habitable globe. 

It is the clergymen who are responsible mainly 
for the bigotry of the laity. You have got it from 
us. We have been bigots partly from ignorance, 
partly from our supercilious priestly pride. We have 
transferred our bigotry to the laity. We have kindled 
their bigotry into a flame. But there have been glo- 
rious exceptions. I should like to quote you two or 
three verses from one of your own bishops. 

The Parish priest, 

Of austerity, 

Climbed up in a high Church steeple, 

To be nearer God, 

So that he might hand 

His word down to the people. 

127 



128 a eri)orug of Jfaiti). 

And in sermon script 

He daily wrote 

What he thought was sent from h3aven; 

And he dropped it down 

On the people's heads 

Two times one day in seven. 

In his age God said 

"Come down and die;" 

And he cried out from the steeple, 

" Where art Thou Lord? " 

And the Lord replied, 

" Down here among my people." 

Now, who are God's people? What is religion? 
Perhaps we may be able to arrive at a definite answer 
to this question if we try to discover whether there are 
any subjects in regard to which the great religious 
leaders of the world differ. Let me read you two or 
three extracts. The first words are taken from the old 
Hebrew prophets : 

" To what purpose is the multitude of your sacri- 
fices unto me? saith the Lord. I delight not in the 
blood of bullocks or of he-goats. Bring no more 
vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; 
your new moons and Sabbath I cannot away with. 
Cease to do evil; learn to do well. Seek judgment; 
relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for 
the widow." 

Zoroaster preached the doctrine that the one thing 
needful was to do right. All good thoughts, words, 
and works lead to Paradise. All evil thoughts, words, 
and works, to hell. Confucius was so anxious to fix 
men's attention on their duty that he would enter into 
no metaphysical speculation regarding the problem of 
immortality. When questioned about it he replied : 
" I do not as yet know what life is. How can I un- 



®nitj) in eft|)ic^, 129 

derstand death ? " The whole duty of man, he said, 
might be summed up in the word reciprocity. We 
must refrain from injuring others, as we would that 
they should refrain from injuring us. Guatama 
taught that every man has to work out his salvation 
for himself, without the mediation of a priest. On 
one occasion, when he met a sacrificial procession, he 
explained to his followers that it was idle to shed the 
blood of bulls and goats; that all they needed was 
change of heart. So, too, he insisted on the useless- 
ness of fasts and penances and other forms of ritual. 

"Neither going naked, nor shaving the head, nor 
wearing matted hair, nor dirt, nor rough garments, 
nor reading the Vedas will cleanse a man. * * * 
Anger, drunkenness, envy, disparaging others, these 
constitute uncleanliness, and not the eating of fiesh." 

He summed up his teaching in the celebrated 

verse ; 

To cease from sin, 

To get virtue, 

To cleanse the heart, 

That is the religion of the Buddhas. 

And in the farewell address which he delivered to 
his disciples he called his religion by the name of 
Purity. " Learn," he exhorted, *' and spread abroad 
the law thought out and revealed by me, that this Pur- 
ity of mine may last long and be perpetuated for the 
good and happiness of multitudes." To the same ef- 
fect spoke Christ : "Not everyone that sayeth unto me, 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, 
but he that doeth the will of my Father." Moham- 
med again taught the self-same doctrine of justifica- 
tion by work : " It is not the flesh and blood ye sac- 
9 



^3o a Cti)drug ot dfaitl). 

rificed ; it is your piety, which is acceptable to God. 
* * * Woe to them that make a show of piety 
and refuse to help the needy. It is not righteous- 
ness that ye turn your faces in prayer toward the 
East or toward the West, but righteousness is of those 
who perform the covenants which they have cove- 
nanted." 

Now these metaphysical subtleties, these questions 
of millinery, were started by theologians. They may 
be useful or not, that is a matter of opinion, but 
they had nothing whatever to do with the religion as 
religion was understood by the greatest teachers, the 
true religion which the world has had. That is a fact 
which all the great religious teachers of the world 
have agreed upon, that conduct was the only thing 
needful. 

But it may be objected that a religion of conduct 
is nothing but morality. Some people have a great 
contempt for morality, and I am not surprised at it. 
They are accustomed to call men moral who restrain 
themselves from murder and manage just to steer 
clear of the divorce court. That kind of morality is a 
contemptible thing. That is not real morality. We 
should understand by morality, all around good con- 
duct; conduct that is governed only by love, and in 
that true sense there is no such thing as mere mo- 
rality; in that true sense morality involves religion. 
Do not misunderstand me; I am far from denying 
the importance of an explicit recognition of God. It 
is of very great importance. It affords us an explan- 
ation, a hopeful explanation, of the mysteries of 
existence which nothing else can supply. 



^anitj) in ^tf^ic^. 131 

But explicit recognition of God is not the begin- 
ning of religion. That is not the first which is spirit- 
ual, but that which is natural, and afterward that 
which is spiritual. " If a man love not his brother 
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he 
hath not seen?" Nor is an explicit recognition of 
God the essence of religion. Who shall define essence 
of religion? If a man say that he loves God and 
hateth his brother, he is a liar. It is by love of man 
alone that religion can be manifested. The love of 
man is the essence of religion. Religion may be 
lacking in metaphysical completeness; it may be lack- 
ing in original consistency; it may be lacking in 
esthetical development; it may be lacking in almost 
everything, — yet if lacking in brotherly love it would 
be mockery and a sham. 

The essential thing is in right conduct, therefore 
it follows that there must be implicit recognition of 
God. I tell you there is a strange surprise awaiting 
some of us in the great hereafter. We shall discover 
that many so-called atheists are, after all, more relig- 
ious than ourselves. He who worships, though he 
know it not, peace beyond the intention of his thought, 
devout beyond the meaning of his will. The whole 
thing has been summed up once and for ever in 
Leigh Hunt's beautiful story of " Abou Ben Adhem." 

Against the iniquity of self-seeking, 
iSctfeolDltf. Judaism has ever protested most loudly, (7^ 

and none the less so against the errors 
and evils of an unjust self-sacrifice. ''Love thyself," 
she says ; " this is natural, this axiomatic, but remember 



W 



^32 21 atf)(iru^ of jFaitf). 

it is never of itself a moral injunction. Egoism as an 
exclusive motive is entirely false, but altruism is not 
therefore exclusively and always right. It likewise 
may defeat itself, may work injury and lead to crime. 
The worthy should never be sacrificed for the 
unworthy. It is a sin for you to give your hard 
earned money to a vagabond and thus propagate vice, 
as much as it is sinful to withhold your aid from the 
struggling genius whose opportunity may yield to the 
world undreamed-of benefits." 

Character is the basic precept of Judaism. It 
claims as the modern philosopher declares, Herbert 
Spencer, that there is no political alchemy by which 
you can get golden conduct out of leaden instincts. 
Whatever the social system it will fail unless the con- 
science of men and women are quick to heed the 
imperative orders of duty and to the obligations and 
responsibilities of power and ownership. The old 
truth of righteousness so emphatically and rigorously 
insisted on from the first by Judaism must be the new 
truth in every changing phase of economic and indus- 
trial life. Only thus can the social questions be 
solved. In her insistance on this doctrine Judaism 
retains her place in the van of the religions of 
humanity. 

Let us forget for once that eter- 
5153olllOTtlE(feg. nal question of origins. Do you 
judge the importance of a river by 
the narrowness of its source ? Do you reproach the 
flowers with the putrified elements which nourish its 
roots ? Now, you see what a wrong way we may take 



©nitg in ©tfticse;. 133 

sometimes in investigating origins. No, let us judge 
the river by the breadth and strength of its full stream, 
and the flower by the beauty of its colors and of its 
odor, and let us not go back nor down to darkness 
when we have the chance of living in light. Religious 
feeling is a thing that exists, it is a reality, and wher- 
ever it may come from it deserves our attention and 
our highest respect as the motor of the greatest acts 
that are accomplished by humanity in the moral 
domain. 

Admitting, for the sake of argument, 
J^ttdlC* that we are idolators and heathen, is it 
Christian morality to trample upon the 
rights and advantages of a non-Christian nation, 
coloring all their natural happiness with the dark 
stain of injustice? I read in the Bible: "Whosoever 
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the 
other also"; but I cannot discover there any passage 
which says: "Whosoever shall demand justice of thee 
smite his right cheek, and when he turns smite the 
other also." Again, I read in the Bible: "If any 
man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, let 
him have thy cloak also"; but I cannot discover there 
any passage which says: "If thou shalt sue any man 
at the law, and take away his coat, let him give thee 
his cloak also." 

You send your missionaries to Japan and they 
advise us to be moral and believe Christianity. We 
like to be moral, we know that Christianity is good, 
and we are very thankful for this kindness. But at 
the same time our people are rather perplexed and 



134 a (tiioxm i3( jFaiti^, 

very much in doubt about this advice. For we think 
that the treaty stipulated in the time of feudalism, 
when we were yet in our youth, is still clung to by 
the powerful nations of Christendom, when we find 
that every year a good many western vessels engaged 
in the seal fishery are smuggled into our seas; when 
legal cases are always decided by the foreign authori- 
ties in Japan unfavorably to us; when some years ago a 
Japanese was not allowed to enter a university on the 
Pacific coast of America because of his being of a dif- 
ferent race; when a few months ago the school board 
in San Francisco enacted a regulation that no Japanese 
scholar be allowed to enter the public schools there; 
when last year the Japanese were driven out in whole- 
sale from one of the territories of the United States of 
America; when our business men in San Francisco 
were compelled by some "Union" not to employ the 
Japanese assistants or laborers, but the Americans; 
when there are some in the same city who speak on 
the platforms against those of us who are already here; 
when there are many men Avho go in processions 
hoisting lanterns marked, "Jap must go"; when the 
Japanese in the Hawaiian islands are deprived of their 
suffrage; when we see some western people in Japan 
who erect before the entrance of their houses a special 
post upon which is the notice, "No Japanese is allowed 
to enter here," just like a board upon which is written, 
"No dogs allowed"; when we are in such a situation 
is it unreasonable — notwithstanding the kindness of 
the western nations, from one point of view, who send 
their missionairies to us — for us intelligent heathen to 
be embarrassed and hesitate to swallow the sweet and 



®nit8 in (Sti)it^. 135 

warm liquid of the heaven of Christianity? If such 
be the Christian ethics, well, we are perfectly satisfied 
to be heathen. 

If any religion teaches injustice to humanity, I 
will oppose it, as I ever have opposed it, with my 
blood and soul. I will be the bitterest dissenter from 
Christianity, or I will be the warmest admirer of its 
gospels. To the promoters of the Parliament and 
the ladies and gentlemen of the world who are 
assembled here. I pronounce that your aim is the 
realization of a religious union, not nominally but 
practically. We, the forty million souls of Japan, 
standing firmly and persistently upon the basis of 
international justice, await still further manifestations 
as to the morality of Christianity. — T/ie Attitude of 
Japan toward Christianity. 

The wise man of virtue is above 
?^$ntl$tl50U. human law so far as his will is with the 
Perfect who is the source of law. The 
good man, with treasures above, provides for his fam- 
ily, deals honestly with his customers, is faithful to his 
tasks without once thinking what the priests may do 
in case he neglects. His own conscience requires of 
him costly actions which no legislator would dream of 
requiring. It would be impossible to frame statutes 
to enclose such refined and delicate feelings, such 
soaring motives. 

It is vain to attempt to make men moral and relig- 
ious by statute and penalty. The magistrate can 
make a hypocrite but never a believer. The kingdom 
of God will ever be beyond the institutions of power 



^•«t.<r^«=*»'v». 



136 a atf^oxm df jFaitt* 

and authority and can never be identified with the 
state. The state has an eye to overt actions but can- 
not measure motives and sentiments. There are vast 
tracts of holiness on which the ruler of a state can 
never lay his surveying chains. Individual effort at 
reform must be a part of a social plan and spiritual 
forces must become embodied if they are to be re- 
demptive. This principle is implied in the Christian 
teaching of the incarnation and of the church. 

Cooperation is the watchword of the hour. "Union 
is Essential" carries with it the triumph of moral 
triumph. The good citizen will use political power 
to overthrow political obstacles to reform ; as head of 
the family he will make the domestic circle the nurs- 
ery of all virtue and charity and worship ; as a mem- 
ber of the church he will seek to associate his labors 
in harmony with his brethren for the common welfare. 
The public schools will enlist his interest as the foun- 
dation of universal intelligence, and through all his 
individual efforts he will sink his egotism, his conceit, 
his pride, his vanity, his ambition, his partisanship, 
his sectarianism. Above all will be the banner of 
love, whose symbol is the Cross, the cross itself, not 
a badge of a party, but God's own sign of universal 
self-sacrificing Fatherhood and Brotherhood.— -/«^/- 
vidiial Effort at Reform not Sufficient. 

^^'^ "^ Unenlightened religion has some- 

SwittJ0Clatttlf. times perverted the moral sense and 
reduced morality to a utilitarian cal- 
culation. Most of the religions which have assigned 
a large place to morality have foundered on the rock 



ffitnitg in dSti^k^. 137 

of asceticism, especially Brahminism, Buddhism, and 
the Christianity of the middle ages. Religion has 
sometimes failed to distinguish between morality and 
ritual, or morality and occult belief, and we have the 
spectacle of a punctilious observer of rites considered 
to be more nearly united to God, notwithstanding ter- 
rible violations of the moral law, than is the good 
man who fails in ritual or creed. 

If the conclusions of all students of Hierology 
shall prove the close connection in origin and in his- 
tory, between morality and religion, a connection 
growing closer as each rises in the scale of worth, 
until we find in the very highest the two indissolubly 
united, may we not conclude a wise dictum for our 
modern life to be " what God in history has joined 
together let no man in practice put asunder." Rather 
let him who would lift the world morally avail himself 
of the motor power of religion ; him who would erect 
a temple of religion see to it that its foundations are 
laid in the enduring granite of character. 

Many of you saw and perhaps shared the smile 
and exclamation of incredulous amusement over the 
paragraph which went the rounds of the papers some 
months ago to the effect that the Mohammedans were 
preparing to send missionaries and establish a Moham- 
medan mission in New York City. But why the smile 
and exclamation? Because of our sense of the 
superiority of our own form of religious faith. Yet 
Christianity has utterly failed to control the vice of 
drunkenness. Chicago to-day is dominated by the 
saloons. Nor is it alone in this respect. Christian 
lands everywhere are dotted with poorhouses, asylums, 



138 a (t\)oxm of jFaitlj. 

jails, penitentiaries, I'eformatories, built to try to 
remedy evils, nine-tenths of which were caused, 
directly or indirectly, by the drink habit which 
Christendom fails to control and is powerless to 
uproot. But Mohammedanism does control it in 
oriental lands. Says Isaac Taylor: ** Mohammed- 
anism stands in fierce opposition to gambling; a 
gambler's testimony is invalid in law." And further: 
" Islam is the most powerful total abstinence associa- 
tion in the world." This testimony is confirmed by 
other writers and by illustration. If it can do so on 
the western continent as well, then what better thing 
could happen to New York, or to Chicago, even, than 
the establishment of some vigorous Mohammedan 
missions? And for the best good of Chicago it 
might be well that the Mayor instruct the police that 
they are not to be arrested for obstructing the high- 
way if they should venture to preach their temperance 
gospel in the saloon quarters of the city. 

Goethe declared long ago that he who knows but 
one language knows none, and Max Miiller applies 
the adage to religion. A very little thought will 
show the truth of the application In either case. On 
the old-time supposition that religion and language 
alike came down ready formed from heaven, a divine 
gift or revelation to man, this would not be true. 
Complete in itself, with no earthly relationships, why 
should it need anything but itself for its comprehen- 
sion. But modern scientific inquiry soon dispels any 
such theories of the origin of language and religion 
alike. If the absolute origin of each is lost in pre- 
historic shadows the light of history shows each as a 



®nitB in (^tf^it^. 139 

gradual evolution or development whose laws of 
development can to some extent be traced, whose 
history can be, partially at least, deciphered. But if 
an evolution, a development, then are both religion 
and language in the chain of cause and effect, and no 
single link of that chain can by any possibility be 
comprehended alone and out of relation to the link 
preceding and following. — T/ie Importance of a Study 
of All Religions 

We are born in the world of 
5>i)9^feW^S0S^W« variety ; some are poor and unfor- (^^^.S^Sv**^ 

tunate, others are wealthy and 
happy. The state of variety will be repeated again 
and again in our future lives. But to whom shall we 
complain of our misery ? To none but ourselves ! 
We reward ourselves ; so shall we do in our future life. 
If you ask me who determined the length of our life, I 
say, the law of causality. Who made him happy and 
made me miserable ? The law of causality. Bodily 
health, material wealth,wonderful genius, unnatural suf- 
fering are the infallible expressions of the law of caus- 
ality which governs every particle of the universe, every 
portion of human conduct. Would you ask me about 
the Buddhist morality ? I reply, in Buddhism the 
source of moral authority is the causal law. Be kind, 
be just, be humane, be honest, if you desire to crown 
your future. Dishonesty, cruelty, inhumanity, will 
condemn you to a miserable fall. 



Religion, then, in itself furnishes us with no 
Cop, rules of conduct ; it accepts the rules worked 
out by human experience. There is no moral 
precept, high or low, in any ethical manual or sacred 
book which has not been experienced, discovered, cre- 
ated, tested, approved by man himself, living his life 
in sympathetic relationship with his fellow-creatures. 
The deepest, the ultimate source of our ethical codes, 
as actual phenomena, is social unity. It is this that 
cultivates sympathy, evokes the recognition of the 
right of the individual man to perfection, defines that 
perfection, and creates the moral ideal. The building 
up of this unity is the highest moral duty of us all, 
and offense to it is the blackest sin of which man is 
capable. He who perpetuates distinction of caste and 
class, who by any social or religious code rears arti- 
ficial barriers between man and man, and thus hinders 
the free interplay of social forces and the free com- 
munion and cooperation of individual men, commits 
a crime of far deeper import than the ordinary 
offenses which excite our indignation. 

Here we see the moral function of love. It has no 
code, but it is an impulse which tends to foster unity. 
Nowhere is this fact more clearly recognized than in 
the Sermon on the Mount, which denounces all selfish 
antagonism and involves, though it does not explicitly 
state, the conception of social unity as the basis of 
moral life. Religion, accepting the ethical code estab- 
lished by man, identifies it with the will and nature of 
Deity, a procedure to which no exception can be 
taken. The impetus which thus comes to the moral 
life is obvious. There is the enthusiasm which springs 



®nitg in (BiUt^* '^i 



from the consciousness of being a part of a vast 
scheme, buoyancy given by hopefulness or certainty 
of final victory, and the exaltation of loyalty to a 
great aim and a transcendent person. 

The true power of religion lies in the contact 
between the divine soul and the soul of man. It 
must be admitted that to attain this is no easy thing. 
To feel the reality of a divine personality in the uni- 
verse, to value this personality as the ideal of justice 
and love, to keep the image of it fresh and living in 
the mind day by day in the midst of the throng of 
petty and serious cares of life, demands an imaginative 
power and a force of will rarely found among men. 
It is in this power that the great creative religious 
minds have excelled. The mass of religious people 
are controlled by lower considerations and never 
reach the plane of pure religious feeling. Most men 
look to God as their helper in physical things or as 
an outside lawgiver, rather than as their comrade in 
moral struggle. 

Thus, religion has not come to its rights in the 
world ; it still occupies, as a rule, the low plane of 
early, non-moral thought ; but is there any reason why 
it should continue in this massive shape ? Is there 
anything to prevent our living in moral contact with 
the soul of the world, and thence deriving the inspira- 
tion and strength we need ? What has been done by 
some may be done in a measure by all. Inadequate 
conceptions of God, and of the moral life must be 
swept away, the free activity of the human soul must 
be recognized and relied on, the habit of contem- 
plation of the ideal must be cultivated; we must 



M2 a €!)otug of 4Faitl^. 

feel ourselves to be literally and truly co-workers with 
God. 

In the presence of such a communion would not 
moral evil be powerless over man ? Finally, we here 
have a conception of religion in which almost all, 
perhaps all, the systems of the world may agree. It is 
our hope of unity. — The Relation Between Religion 
and Conduet. 

Christianity has been distinguished in the 
iSI|). world's Parliament of Religions in to true and 
false, and this is well. There is false 
Christianity, which may be termed Anti-Christ, 
for if there is any Anti-Christ it is this, which 
has brought reproach on the name of Chris- 
tianity itself. It is this false Christianity which 
fails to recognize the needs of others and centers 
itself on individual salvation, neglecting what the 
apostle James called " pure and undefiled relig- 
ion" — namely, ministration to one's fellows. The 
social life of this land of ours would proclaim the 
value of Christianity, if it could in its true sense be 
called a Christian land. But we cannot be called 
such a land. We do not attempt to carry out the 
principles of fraternity, and any claim that we do 
is mere ignorance or pretense — hypocrisy of the 
kind condemned by Christ in the strongest language. 
It does not avail us to make long prayers while weneg- 
lect widows and orphans in need. He who did this 
in the time of Christ violated the principles of 
national brotherhood. He who does so now, vio- 
lates the principles of universal brotherhood. 



Shall a land be called Christian which slaughters 
human beings needlessly by the thousand rather than 
introduce improvements in railway transportation 
simply because they cost money? That is exalting 
material things above human beings. Shall a city 
like Chicago be called Christian, maintaining its 
grade crossings and killing innocent persons by the 
hundred yearly, simply because it would cost money 
to elevate its railway tracks? To make the claim for 
our country that it is a Christian land is a cruel wrong 
to Christianity. If we were animated by the spirit of 
Christianity we would do away at the earliest moment 
with such abuses as these and others which daily in 
factory and workshop maim and mutilate men, women, 
and children. 

We can imagine Christ among us to-day, pointing, 
as of old, to our great temples, and warning us that 
the time will come when one stone of them shall not 
rest upon another. We can imagine Christ pointing 
to our grade crossings and to our link and pin coup- 
lers, covered with the blood of mutilated brakemen, 
and crying out to us : " Woe unto you, hypocrites, ye 
do these things and for a pretense make long 
prayers." We can also imagine Him summoning 
before our vision the thousands who have lost their 
limbs in needless industrial accidents, and pointing 
to the hospitals to relieve them and the charities to 
furnish them with artificial limbs, and again uttering 
of His terrible maledictions : ''Woe unto you, hypo- 
crites!" We can also imagine him in his scathing 
denunciations and heart-searching sermons, opening 
our eyes to our social iniquities and shortcomings, 



and calling to mind the judgment to come, in which 
reward or penalty shall be visited upon us, either as 
we have or have not ministered to those who needed 
our ministrations — the hungry, the naked, the pris- 
oner, and the captive. The reward : " Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto the least of these ye have done it unto me" ; the 
penalty: " Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto the 
least of these — depart from me." — Christianity as a 
Social Force. 

Now comes the question, what is 
^rv^-g^J]^ ®f)Utlftal>i)arn, good and what is evil ? Every act, 

speech or thought derived from 
falsehood, or that which is injurious to others is 
evil. Every act, speech, or thought derived from truth 
and that which is not injurious to others is good. 
Buddhism teaches that lust prompts avarice ; anger 
creates animosity ; ignorance produces false ideas. 
These are called evils because they cause pain. On 
the other hand, contentment prompts charity ; love 
creates kindness ; knowledge produces progressive 
ideas. These are called good because they give 
pleasure. 

The teachings of Buddhism on morals are numer- 
ous, and are divided into three groups of advantages: 
The advantage to be obtained in the present life, the 
advantage to be obtained in the future life, and the 
advantage to be obtained in all eternity. For each 
of these advantages there are recommended numer- 
ous paths to be followed by those who aspire to any 
one of them. I will only quote a few examples ; 



./D 



©nitg in QSti)m. ms 

To those who aspire to advantages in the present 
life Buddhism recommends diligence, economy, 
expenditure suitable to one's income, and association 
with the good. 

To those who aspire to the advantages of the future 
life are recommended charity, kindness, knowledge 
of right and wrong. 

To those who wish to enjoy the everlasting advan- 
tages in all eternity are recommended purity of con- 
duct, of mind, and of knowledge. 

Let us do all we can in our day and fH^v-v-A^v* 
iHBrttibon^l. generation in the cause of humanity. 
Every man has a mission from God to 
help his fellow-being. Though we differ in faith, 
thank God, there is one platform on which we stand 
united, and that is the platform of charity and benev- 
olence. We cannot indeed, like our Divine Master, 
give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and 
speech to the dumb, and strength to the paralyzed 
limb, but we can work miracles of grace and mercy by 
relieving the distress of our suffering brethren. And 
never do we approach nearer to our Heavenly Father 
than when we alleviate the sorrows of others. Never 
do we perform an act more godlike than when we 
bring sunshine to hearts that are dark and desolate. 
Never are we more like to God than when we cause 
the flowers of joy and gladness to bloom in souls that 
were dry and barren before. "Religion," says the 
apostle, "pure and undefiled before God, The 
Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and the widow in 
their tribulation, and to keep oneself unspotted from 

10 



m6 a atiioxm of Jfaiti^. 

this world." Or to borrow the words of the pagan 
Cicero : " Homines ad Deos nulla re propius acce- 
dunt quam salutem hominibus dando." *' There is 
no way by which men can approach nearer to the 
gods than by contributing to the welfare of their fel- 
low creatures." 

Confucianism does not encourage mysteries 
V J^O* and strange things or marvels. It is impartial 
e^^vAw.***' and upright. It is a doctrine of great impar- 

tiality and strict uprightness, which one may body 
forth in one's person and carry out with vigor in one's 
life ; therefore, we say, when the sun and moon come 
forth as in Confucianism, then the light of candles 
can be dispensed with. 

It is not enough for our admirable 
J^lfifllttJIOIt* chairman to marshal us together and 
address us like St. Anthony, who 
preached to the fishes in the old German poem. 
That poem records how eloquently the good Saint 
addressed them and how well they listened to him. 
He explained to the pickerel that they ought not to 
eat each other; he told the trout they ought not to 
steal each other's food; and he said the eel ought not 
to go eeling around miscellaneously, getting into 
all manner of mischief. It is recorded that the fishes 
heard him in rapture, but at the end, the poem says, 
at the end, after all : 

The trout went on stealing, 
The eel went on eeling. 
Much delighted were they, 
But preferred the old way. 



ffilnitg in (Sti)ic^. m7 

Let us guard against that danger; and how can we 
guard against it so well as by a little mutual humility 
when we ask ourselves how well any of us have dealt 
with the actual problems of human life? When it 
comes to that, after all, have any of us so very much 
to boast of? 

With the seething problems of social reform pene- 
trating all our community and raising the question 
whether one day the whole system of competition 
under which we live may not be swept away as abso- 
lutely as the feudal system disappeared before it; with 
the questions of drunkenness and prostitution in our 
cities; with the mortgaged farms in our country 
towns; with all these things pressing upon us, is it 
quite time for us to assume the attitude of infallibility 
before the descendants of Plato and the disciples of 
Gautama Buddha? 

The test of works is the one that must come before 
us. Every Oriental that comes to us — and, curiously 
enough, I have heard half a dozen say the same thing 
in different places — concedes to us the power of 
organization, the power of labor, the method in actual 
life, which they lack. I do not say they deny us any 
virtue, except the knowledge of the true God. They 
don't seem to think we have very much of that, and 
that knowledge, as they claim, is brought to bear in 
virtues of heart as well as in the virtues of thrift, of 
industry, of organization, and in the virtue of prayer, 
in the virtue of trust, in the virtue of absolute confi- 
dence in God. 



m8 a m)oxm cif jFaitib* 

^. 'j Religion and wealth are two great 

^t^hA*^ ^la^tien. interests of human life. Are they hostile 
Yrw»''f'*-'*««* 3 Qj. friendly ? Are they mutually exclu- 

sive or can they dwell together in unity ? In a per- 
fect social state what would be their relations ? 

What is religion ? Essentially it is the devout 
recognition of a supreme power. It is belief in a 
creator, a sovereign, a father of men, with some sense 
of dependence upon him and obligation to him. 
The religious life is the life according to God, the life 
whose keynote is harmony with the divine nature and 
conformity to the divine will. What will the man 
who is living this kind of a life think about wealth ? 
How will his religion affect his thoughts about wealth ? 
If all men were in this highest sense of the word 
religious, should we have wealth among us ? 

The ability of men productively and beneficently 
to use wealth is by no means equal ; often those who 
have most power in getting it show little wisdom in 
using it. One man could handle with benefit to him- 
self and fellows one hundred thousand dollars a year; 
another could not handle one thousand dollars a year 
without doing both to himself and his fellows great 
injury. If the function of wealth under the divine 
order is the development of manhood, then it is plain 
that an equal distribution of it would be altogether 
inadmissible ; for under such a distribution some 
would obtain far less than they could use with benefit 
and others far more. 

The socialistic maxims : " To each according to 
his needs" and "To each according to his works," 
are evidently ambiguous. What needs ? The needs 



©nitg In (ffiti^icg. 149 

of the body or of the spirit ? And how can we assure 
ourselves that by any distribution which we could 
effect real needs would be supplied ? Any distribu- 
tion according to supposed needs would be constantly 
perverted. It is impossible for us to ascertain and 
measure the real needs of men. 

*'To each according to his works" is equally 
uncertain. What works ? Works of greed or works 
of love ? Works whose aim is sordid or works whose 
aim is social ? According to the divine plan the 
function of wealth, as we have seen, is the perfection 
of character and the promotion of social welfare. 
The divine plan must, therefore, be that wealth shall 
be so distributed as to secure the greatest results. 
And religion, which seeks to discern and follow the 
divine plan, must teach that the wealth of the world 
will be rightly distributed only when every man shall 
have as much as he can wisely use to make himself a 
better man, and the community in which he lives a 
better community — so much and no more. 

It is obvious that the divine plan is yet far from 
realization. Other and far less ideal methods of dis- 
tribution are recognized by our laws, and it would be 
folly greatly to change the laws until radical changes 
have taken place in human nature. — Religion and 
Wealth. 

Now and here my earnest wish is this, 

Sfit^fltta. that the time should come soon when all 

nations on the earth will join their armies 

and navies with one accord, guarding the world as a 

whole, and thus prevent preposterous wars with each 



W'Kwwtoi 



i5o 



a (t^oxm Of jFaWj^ 



other. They should also establish a supreme court, 
in order to decide the case when a difference arises 
between them. In that state no nation will receive 
unjust treatment from another, and every nation and 
every individual will be able to maintain their own 
right and enjoy the blessings of providence. 



lf\iOn^A-r*«*>** 



V^fc-^rv •»''v»w 



We may truly say that with us 
(©'(©Ottnait. separation of Church and State is 
not separation of the nation from re- 
ligion. The American conception is that the relig- 
ious character of the nation consists mainly in the 
religious belief of the individual citizen and the con- 
formity of conduct to that belief. ''There is no 
country in the whole world," said De Tocqueville, 
"in which the Christian religion retains a greater 
influence over the souls of men than in America; it 
directs the manners of the community, and by regu- 
lating domestic life it regulates the State. I am cer- 
tain that Americans hold religion to be indispensable 
to the maintenance of Republican institutions." 

VxA"-* Humanity is not God-touched in 

Jl^Ultin. spots, with primitive exterior revelations 
on mountain tops for a chosen few. He 
is the Divine Immanence, the source of all — revealing 
himself to all; recognized just so fast as his children 
grow able to discover him. It is an infinite revela- 
tion — an eternal discovery. Hunger is the goad to 
growth; hunger for protoplasm, and then — Oh, the 
weary way that stretches between! — then hunger for 
righteousness. An eternal search, an eternal finding. 



janitg in (5rt)ics. 151 

How readily do we enter into the full possibilities 
of our high heritage. They who have learned to live 
on the heights have been the prophet souls of all 
ages and all races. The multitudinous voice of hu- 
manity has uttered itself through them. If we would 
know humanity we must interpret it at its best. What 
these are all humanity may be. The ideal man is the 
actual man. It is what all men may become. The 
Ought that moves one man to deeds that thrill a 
nation is essentially the same in kind with the Ought 
that impels the lowliest deed in the obscurest corner 
of the world. If one human soul has come into being 
without a tendency toward goodness, toward the 
right, the true, and with hope to at length reach a 
divine destiny, then the universe is a failure. There 
is a place where God is not, and infinite goodness, 
infinite justice is a myth. Morality may not be possi- 
ble in ant and bee and beaver and dog, but ethical 
principle is there. "Striving to be man the worm 
mounts through all the spires of form." Not that a 
man is recognized, and there is a conscious reach 
toward him, but because back of worm and clod there 
is the same persuasive power that impelled man to be 
man, that led him to lay hold of the forces of the 
universe and compel them to serve him. Through 
the realization of the divine potency of the ethical 
sense in the experiences of his own life, man becomes 
conscious of God, of God as good. Rising to this 
higher realization through the lesser, the lesser takes 
on new meaning. Our relations to tree, to dog, to 
man, assume new dignity. We find the ultimate 
meaning of these common relationships. Here is the 



152 a Oti^nruis of Jfaitf). 

explanation of life's common experience. They are 
all manifestations of God. He is Lord of these hosts, 
he is all. And we find him only as we tread loyally 
the pathway of the commonplace. Relationship to 
him is the culmination of all these lesser relation- 
ships. And 

We turn from seeking thee afar 

And in unwonted ways, 
To build from out our daily lives 

The temples of thy praise. 

Try to evade the truth, if you will; you must face 
it at last. No creedal church and no form of eccle- 
siasticism has ever lent itself to the emancipation of 
the woman-half of humanity. She has suffered and 
still suffers because of the results of dogmatic beliefs 
and theological traditions, but the ethical sense of 
the humanity of which she is a part is lifting her out 
into the fullness of religious liberty. She does not 
come into the fellowship to write creeds nor to im- 
pose dogmas, but to cooperate in such high living as 
shall make possible religiousness. She comes to help 
do away with false standards of conduct by demand- 
ing morality for morality, purity for purity, self-re- 
specting manhood for self-respecting womanhood. 
She will help remove odious distinctions on account 
of sex, and make one code of morals do for both men 
and women. This, not alone in the Western World, 
where circumstances have been more propitious for 
woman's advancement, but in all parts of the world. 
— T/ie Essential Oneness of Ethical Ideas among All 
Men, 



JHnitg in (&ft)it^. 153 

I say let the people have bands. Cul- ^A^ €^k*J*, 
J@aib)(tfi(' tivate music in the home; harmonize 
crowds with music. Let it be more and 
more the solace and burden-lifter of humanity; and, 
above all, let us learn that music is not only a consola- 
tion, it not only has the power of expressing emotion, 
of exciting emotion, but also the power of disciplin- 
ing, controlling and purifying emotion. When you 
listen to a great symphony of Beethoven you undergo 
a process of divine restraint. Music is an immortal 
benefactor, because it illustrates the law of emotional 
restraint. 

There is a grand future for music. Let it be noble 
and it will also be restrained. When you listen to a 
symphony by Beethoven you place yourselves in the 
hands of a great master. You hold your breath in 
one place and let it out in another; you have now to 
give way in one place and then you have to expand 
in another; it strikes the whole gamut of human 
feeling, from glow and warmth down to severe 
exposure and restraint. Musical sound provides a 
diagram for the discipline, control, and purification 
of the emotions. Music is the most spiritual and 
latest born of the arts in this most material and 
skeptical age; it is not only a consolation but a kind 
of ministering angel in the heart, it lifts us up 
and reminds us and restores in us the sublime con- 
sciousness of our own immortality. For it is in 
listening to sweet and noble strains of music that 
we feel lifted and raised above ourselves. We move 
about in worlds not realized; it is as the footfalls 
on the threshold of another world. We breathe a 






154 a atffoxm of jTaiti^. 

higher air. We stretch forth the spiritual antennae 

of our being and touch the invisible, and in still 

moments we have heard the songs of the angels, 

and at chosen seasons there comes a kind of open 

vision. We have "seen white Presences among the 

hills." 

Hence in a season of calm weather, 
Though inland far we be, 
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea. 
Which brought us hither. 

"Wva To be valorous, to meet hardships 

jplttt^tX* and suffering uncomplainingly, to flinch 
from no pain or danger when action was 
demanded was the ideal set before every Indian. A 
Ponca Indian who paused an instant in battle to dip 
up a handful of water to slake his burning thirst 
brought upon himself such ignominy that he sought 
death to hide his shame. 

Hospitality was a marked virtue in the race. The 
lodge was never closed, or the last morsel of food ever 
refused to the needy. The richest man was not he 
who possessed the most, but he who had given away 
the most. This deeply rooted principle of giving is 
a great obstacle in the way of civilizing the Indians, 
as civilization depends so largely upon the accumula- 
tion of property. 

In every home the importance of peace was taught 
and the quarrelsome person pointed out as one not to 
be trusted, since success would never attend his under- 
takings whom neither the visible nor invisible powers 
would befriend. 

This virtue of peace was inculcated in more than 



one religious ritual, and it was the special theme and 
sole object of a peculiar ceremony which once widely- 
obtained over the valley of the Mississippi, the Calu- 
met or Sacred Pipe ceremony. The symbols used 
point back to myths which form the ground-work of 
other ceremonies hoary with age. In the presence of 
these symbolic pipes there could be no strife. Mar- 
quette, in 1672, wrote: "The Calumet is the most 
mysterious thing in the world. The scepters of our 
kings are not so much respected, for the Indians have 
such a reverence for it that we may call it the God of 
Peace and War, and the arbiter of life and death. * 
* * One with this Calumet may venture among his 
enemies and in the hottest battles they lay down their 
arms before this Sacred Pipe." 

We are recognizing to-day that God's family is a 
large one and that human sympathy is strong. Upon 
this platform have been gathered men from every race 
of the Eastern world, but the race that for centuries 
was the sole possessor of this Western Continent has 
not been represented. No American Indian has told 
us how his people have sought after God through the 
dim ages of the past. He is not here, but cannot his 
sacred symbol serve its ancient office once more and 
bring him and us together in the bonds of peace and 
brotherhood ? — TAe Religion of the North American 
Indians. 

It is altogether natural and proper that gLw-^Vc*-/ 

^otOflK in form and method and ritual there should 

be diversity, great diversity, among the 

people interested in religion throughout the world, 

but it is also possible, as it is extremely desirable, 



^56 aar|)oru!5 of jFaWj. 

that there should be unity and fraternity and coopera- 
tion in the promulgation of simple spiritual truth. Not 
very long ago I went to one of the great Salvation 
Army meetings in New York with two of my personal 
friends, who were also members of the Society of 
Friends, It was one of those meetings full of enthusi- 
asm, with volleys innumerable, and we met that gifted 
and eloquent Queen of the Army, Mrs. Ballington 
Booth, to whom I had the pleasure of introducing my 
two Quaker friends. Taking in the humor of the sit- 
uation, she said: ''Yes, we have much in common; 
you add a little quiet and we add a little noise." 

The much in common between these two very dif- 
ferent peoples, the noisy Salvationists and the quiet 
Quakers, is in the application of admitted Christian 
truth to human needs. It is along that line that my 
thought must lead this morning with regard to unity 
and fraternity among religious men and religious 
women. Every people on the face of the earth has 
some conception of the supreme and the infinite. It 
is common to all classes, all races, all nationalities, 
but the Christian ideal, according to my own concep- 
tion, is the highest and most complete ideal of all. 
It embraces most fully the fatherhood of God and the 
brotherhood of mankind. 

Justice and mercy and love it ^maintains as due 
from each to all. There are no races, there are no 
territorial limitations or exceptions. Even the most 
untutored have always been found to be amenable to 
the presentation of this fundamental Christian thought 
exemplified in a really Christian life. 

Some one has described salvation as being simply 



JEnitg in (Qif^m. 157 

harmonious relationship between God and man. If 
that be a true description of the heavenly condition 
we need not wait till we pass beyond the river to 
experience something of the uplift of the joy of sal- 
vation. Let us band together, religious men and 
women of all names and nationalities, to bring 
about this greater harmony between each other and 
between God, the Father of us all. Then, finally, in 
all lands and in every soul, the lowliest as well as the 
highest, may this more and more become the joyous 
refrain of each, "Nearer, my God, to Thee; Nearer to 
Thee." 

^^^^^^ It is a significant and encouraging sign tuy.JwiH^w*'^^^ 

i^tOtOU. that in this great Parliament of Religions 
so much time is given to practical ques- 
tions, such as are suggested by intemperance, crime, 
the subordination of woman, and other subjects of a 
similar character. The practical applications of relig- 
ion are to-day of more importance than philosophical 
speculation. All the religions of the world are here, 
not to wrangle over the theological differences or 
forms or modes of worship, but to join hands in one 
grand heroic effort for the uplifting of humanity. 

We live in an humanitarian age when religionists 
and theologians are asking, not so much how best to 
secure an interest in the real estate of the Eternal 
City, as how they may make this earth habitable for 
God's children. Not how they may appease the 
wrath of an offended deity and purchase their own 
personal salvation hereafter, but how they can bless 
their fellow-men, here and now. "If ye love not your 



158 a ar|)orug of #aiti). 

brother whom ye have seen, how can ye love God 
whom ye have not seen ? " 

The churches, as such, do not think 
Siwall. the thoughts nor talk the language, nor 
share the burdens which, for the masses in 
cities, contain the real problems in life. 

In the cant phrase of the day, God and immortal- 
ity, as represented by the churches, cut almost no fig- 
ure at all among the practical calculations of the 
majority. The typical man of to-day is a practical 
positivist. 

Whether he believes in God or not, he believes 
in principles of fairness that ought to rule among 
men, especially among his competitors. Whether he 
believes in heaven or not, he believes that this world 
can be made to contain vastly more happiness than 
has ever been realized, and he has little use for a 
religion that shows less interest than he feels in means 
of securing present welfare. Never has it been so 
necessary as to-day for religion to commend itself by 
a direct championship of a just and generous brother- 
hood, which immediately diminishes the aggravations 
of unhappiness and increases the aggregate of comfort. 
Never have the masses been so suspicious and con- 
temptuous of every religion which fails to justify itself 
by manifest usefulness of this description. 

There is not a sect represented in this Parliament 
which can consistently ignore either the spiritual or 
the social hemisphere of religion, its own principles 
being the criterion. Every religion here represented 
is a relation to God, under some name or form. Oo 



©nitg in Qiti)it^. ^59 

the other hand, and still more to our immediate pur- 
pose, this World's Congress of Religions has once for 
all estopped Christians from claiming for their religion 
a monopoly of the ideal and the policy of universal 
brotherhood. Christian churches may profess a zeal 
for God which reduces fraternity to an inoperative 
sentiment, but transfer of assets to a preferred credi- 
tor is prima facie fraud in religion not less than in 
business. 

Social cooperation between churches does not 
involve artificial denominational union. 

There will always be in the world a quota of peo- 
ple who think. A respectable portion of the number 
will be Christians. No more grateful service can be 
rendered to a thinker than dissent from his opinion 
and exhibition of reasons for the difference. In so 
far as denominational diversity stands for actual 
variety of belief and judgment, it is a medium of 
religious and social progress. They are not the pro- 
foundest who clamor for religious union based on 
confessional compromise. 

On the other hand, social cooperation of churches 
is the only credible evidence of their belief that 
effective fraternity is a religious obligation more im- 
perative than protection of denominational prestige. 
Others besides politicians serve the public only when 
the service can be coined into party capital. 

The basis of social cooperation should be com- 
mon recognition of the obligation of brotherhood. 

If the Samaritan and the hotel-keeper on the 
Jericho road had postponed cooperation until they 
settled their doctrinal differences the stranger would 



»6o a (it\)oxm Df jFaitf)* 

have perished as thousands are perishing in our cities 
to-day, from the inhumanity of religion. 

It is difficult for the theorist to anticipate the 
practical ingenuity of any Chicago workers. Since 
this Parliament convened the problem of the unem- 
ployed in Chicago has evoked spontaneous union foi 
solution of the problem between representatives ol 
Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Jews and 
the Salvation Army. The churches are suffering in 
their own spiritual life for more such cooperation. 
In our sectarian isolation we are like men holding a 
single cup of the battery. We must join hands with 
men at the other pole to feel the galvanic current. 

Let us record the hope and the prediction that 
this Parliament of Religions will promote municipal 
cooperation of all men who love their fellows; each 
respecting the other's right to worship God according 
to the dictates of his own conscience, each pledging 
to the other his loyal fellowship toward helping every 
brother man to achieve life in more and more abund- 
ance. 



BROTHERHOOD. 



ft I6t 



There shall rise from this confused sound of voices 

A firmer faith than that our fathers knew, 
A deep religion which alone rejoices 

In worship of the Infinitely True, 
Not built on rite or portent, but a finer 
And purer reverence for a Lord diviner. 

There shall come from out this noise of strife and groaning 

A broader and a juster brotherhood, 
A deep equality of aim, postponing 

All selfish seeking to the general good. 
There shall come a time when each shall to another 
Be as Christ would have him — brother unto brother. 

There shall come a time when knowledge wide extended, 
Seeks each man's pleasure in the general health. 

And all shall hold irrevocably blended 
The individual and the commonwealth ; 

When man and woman in an equal union 

Shall merge, and marriage be a true communion. 

There shall come a time when brotherhood shows stronger 
Than the narrow bounds which now distract the world ; 

When the cannons roar and trumpets blare no longer. 
And the ironclad rusts, and battle flags are furled ; 

When the bars of creed and speech and race, which sever, 

Shall be fused in one humanity forever. 

Lewis Morris. 



l6| 



BROTHERHOOD. 



I will tell you a little story. 
Ulbefeaitanta. You have heard the eloquent J^\^^ ^%w 

speaker who has just finished say: 
"Let us cease from abusing each other," and he was 
very sorry that there should be always so much 
variance. 

But I think I should tell you a story which would 
illustrate the cause of this variance. A frog lived 
in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was 
born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, 
small frog. Of course the evolutionists were not 
there then to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or 
not, but, for our story's sake, we must take it for 
granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day 
cleansed the waters of all the worms and bacilli that 
lived in it with an energy that would give credit to 
our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on 
and became a little slick and fat. Well, one day 
another frog that lived in the sea came and fell into 
the well. 

"Whence are you from? " 

" I am from the sea." 

"The sea; how big is that? Is it as big as my 
well? " and he took a leap from one side of the well 
to the other. 

"My friend," says the frog of the sea, "how do you 
compare the sea with your little well?" 

163 



i64 a atiioxm of dFaiti). 

Then the frog took another leap and asked, " Is 
your sea so big? " 

**What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea 
with your well." 

"Well then," said the frog of the well, "nothing 
can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing 
bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him 
out." 

That has been the difficulty all the while. 

I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well 
and thinking that the whole world is my little well. 
The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the 
whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in 
his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I 
have to thank you of America for the great attempt 
you are making to break down the barriers of this 
little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the 
Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose. 

^K«/»^ If Judaism would be anything in the 

ILa^atUSi world to-day it must be a spiritual force. 
Only then can it be true to its special 
mission, the spirit not the letter of its truth. Away, 
then, with all the Ghettos and with spiritual isolation 
in every form, and let the " spirit blow where it list- 
eth." The Jew must change his attitude before the 
world and come into spiritual fellowship with those 
around him. John, Paul, Jesus himself — we can claim 
them all for our own. We do not want "missions" 
to convert us. We cannot become Presbyterians, 
Episcopalians, members of any dividing sect, "teach- 
ing for doctrines the opinions of men." Christians, as 



well as Jews, need the larger unity that shall embrace 
them all, the unity of the spirit, not of doctrine. 

Mankind at large may not be ready for a universal 
religion, but let the Jews with their prophetic instinct, 
their deep, spiritual insight, set the example and give 
the ideal. The world has not yet fathomed the secret 
of its redemption, and " salvation may yet again be of 
the Jews." The times are full of signs. On every 
side there is a call, a challenge and awakening. What 
the world needs to-day, not alone the Jews, who have 
borne the yoke, but the Christians who bear Christ's 
name and persecute, and who have built up a civiliza- 
tion so entirely at variance with the principles he 
taught — what we all need. Gentiles and Jews alike, is 
not so much " a new body of doctrine," as Claude 
Montefiore suggests, but a new spirit put into life 
which shall re-fashion it upon a nobler plan and con- 
secrate it anew to higher purpose and ideals. Science 
has done its work, clearing away the deadwood of 
ignorance and superstition, enlarging the vision and 
opening out the path. Christians and Jews alike, 
"Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God 
created us?" Remember to what you are called, you 
who claim belief in a living God who is a Spirit, and 
who therefore must be worshiped " in spirit and in 
truth," not with vain forms and with meaningless 
service, nor yet in the world's glittering shapes, the 
work of men's hands or brains, but in the ever-grow- 
ing, ever-deepening love and knowledge of his truth 
and its showing forth to men. Once more let the 
Holy Spirit descend and dwell among you, in your 
life to-day, as it did upon your holy men, your proph- 



i66 a (Eiioxm of jFaitf), 

ets of the olden times, lighting the world as it did for 
them with that radiance of the skies ; and so make 
known the faith that is in you, " for by their fruits ye 
shall know them." 

Let us believe in our equality; 
SMolfeonSfep, let us not be "astonished" when life 
once in a while gives us the chance 
of experiencing that one man feels like another man. 
Let us work for unity and happiness, obeying our 
conscience and forgetting that such things exist as 
Catholic or Buddhist or Lutheran or Mohammedan. 
Let every one keep those divisions each one for him- 
self and not classify the others ; if some one does not 
classify himself, and if he does not care to be classified 
at all, well then let him alone. You won't be able to 
erase him from the great class of humanity to which 
he belongs as well as you. He will fulfill his human 
duties under the impulse of his conscience as well as 
you and perhaps better, and if a future exists, the God 
in whom he did not or could not believe will give him 
the portion of happiness he has deserved in making 
others happy. For what is morality after all ? It is 
to live so that the God who, according to some of us, 
exists in one way, according to some others, in 
another way, who, according to some others, does not 
exist at all but whom we all desire to exist, that this 
God should be satisfied with our acts. And after this, 
as the poet says : 

For forms of faith let foolish zealots fight. 
He can't be wrong whose life is in the right. 

Some years ago an English preach-er said "the time 



had come when we should not any more ask a man : 
'How do you believe?' but *Do you believe?'" 
Now, we think the time has come when we must neither 
ask a man : " How do you believe ?" nor "Do you 
believe ? " but "Do you want to believe ?" And the 
answer will be the most unanimous cheer that human- 
ity has ever raised. 

The Spanish writer, Count Castelar, says somewhere: 
"Christianity, like light, has many colors." We don't 
pretend to be broader than Christianity, but if Chris- 
tianity is broad it is because every shading of the 
Christian rainbow teaches us that humanity, like light, 
has many colors, and, pardon me the joke in serious 
matters, in this country, you know, you have proved 
that humanity has many "colors." 

Yes, Christianity is broad because it teaches us to 
accept and not to exclude. If only all of us would 
remember this principle the ridiculous word of "relig- 
ion of the future " would disappear once and forever. 
Of course, as long as you will consider that religion 
consists in forms of worshiping that secure to you 
your individual salvation, the greatest part of humanity 
will declare that forms are worn out and that we need 
a new "religion of the future." But if you fill your- 
self with the idea that religion is the synthesis of your 
beliefs in those prescriptions that regulate your acts 
toward other men, you will give up your wandering, in 
search of new ways of individual salvation, and you 
will find vitality and strength in the certitude that we 
need no other way but the one shown by the religion 
that teaches us that all men are the same whatever 
their religion may be. 



i68 a atfjoxm of dFaiti^. 

It is this recognition of the father- 
®ribf)Ot10. hood of God and the brotherhood of 
Christ that has inspired the Catholic 
Church in her mission of love and benevolence. This 
is the secret of her all-pervading charity. This idea 
has been her impelling motive in her work of the so- 
cial regeneration of mankind. I behold, she says, in 
every human creature a child of God and a brother 
and sister of Christ, and therefore I will protect help- 
less infancy and decrepit old age. I will feed the 
orphan and nurse the sick. I will strike the shackles 
from the feet of the slave, and will rescue degraded 
women from the moral bondage and degradation to 
which her own frailty and the passions of the stronger 
sex had consigned her. 

This Parliament of Religion re- 
i3citl ft-i^ an tg. minds me of the splendid mani- 
festation of self-denial, of freedom 
and fraternity, which took place a century ago at the 
beginning of the French revolution. It is also, as it 
were,a Pentecost of humanity, a pouring out of the Holy 
Ghost of justice, of toleration, and of human brother- 
hood. May God, the Almighty Father, let it bring 
the most practical results; may this age witness the 
brotherhood of Christian unity spread over the whole 
world. I hail this first Parliament of Religions as the 
star of good hope for the religious people seeking for 
peace and harmony in the old as in the new world. 



The spirit of the Armenian 
Ofn^atSCflunigtia. church is tolerant. A characteris- ^Ayv%A^'wv^»w' 

tic feature of Armenians, even 
while they were heathen, was that they were cosmo- 
politan in religious matters. Armenia, in early ages, 
was an America for the oppressed of other lands. 
From Assyria, as we read in the Bible, in the Book of 
Kings, Adramelik and Landssar escaped to Armenia. 
From China, Hindustan, and Palestine they went 
thither, carrying their religious thoughts and their 
idols, which they worshiped side by side with the Ar- 
menian gods. 

Christianity has entirely changed the political and 
moral life of Armenia, but the tolerant spirit has ever 
remained. For more than fifteen hundred years she 
has been persecuted for her faith and her conscience' 
sake, and yet she has never been a religious persecu- 
tor. She calls no church heterodox. The last Cath- 
olicos, Makar the First, said once to me: "My son, 
do not call any church heterodox. All churches are 
equal, and everybody is saved by his own faith." 
Every day in our churches prayers are offered for all 
those who call on the name of The Most-High in sin- 
cerity. 

Truth unites and appeases; error begets 
W&ii^t* antagonism and fanaticism. Error, whether Jr"^^ 

in the spontaneous belief or in the scientific 
formulas of theology, is the cause of the distracting 
factionalism in the transcendental realm. Truth, well 
defined, is the most successful arbitrator among mental 
combatants. It seems, therefore, the best method to 



I70 a Oti^orug nf jFait]^. 

unite the human family in harmony, peace, and good- 
will is to construct a rational and humane system of 
theology, as free from error as possible, clearly 
defined and appealing directly to the reason and con- 
science of all normal men. Research and reflection 
in the field of Israel's literature and history produce 
the conviction that a code of laws is no religion. 

I have nothing more to add than to 
L fi /kK^j^iCI]^^^^^ extend my open arms and embrace all 

those who attend this congress of the min- 
isters of the world. I embrace, as my brothers in 
Jesus Christ, as my brothers in the divinely inspired 
gospel, as my friends in eminent ideas and sentiments, 
all men; for we have a common creator, and conse- 
quently a common father and God. 



I cannot but feel gratified by the 
lI90USld£i!9* expression of a wish on the part of this 
great audience to hear a word from me. 
I did not come here to speak, however. I am some- 
what in the condition of a man who attended a mis- 
sionary meeting in London. "Give me a subject," 
he said, when called upon for a speech, "and I will 
address you." Said his friends sitting behind him, 
"Pitch into the Roman Catholics." 

I take it that it would be very dangerous in this 
meeting to pitch into the Roman Catholics, for we 
are all Catholics, ready to strike hands with all manner 
of men from all the nations of the earth not disposed 
to draw the line anywhere absolutely. And it is one 
of the glories of this great congress that it brings 



13roti)eri)(ititr, ivi 



together men of all varieties of opinion as well as all 
complexion. I have only to say to all those who have 
the spirit of liberty within them that I hold them as 
countrymen, clansmen, kinsmen, and brothers beloved. 
I even like the negro with all his faults, and I can 
bear with my white brethren. 

But it is a hard thing in this world to get justice 
and fairness for these people after all. It is hard for 
an Englishman, for instance, to do justice to an Irish- 
man. It is hard, perhaps, for an Irishman to do 
justice to an Englishman. It is very hard for a 
Christian to do justice to a Jew. And it is hard for a 
Jew to do justice to a Christian. But we are recon- 
ciling them all to-day. We are bringing them all 
into unity; and- it is a delightful thing to see brethren 
dwelling together in unity. If I had not been study- 
ing man all my life rather than theology I should be 
able to make a speech to you to-day, but I have been 
studying the great question of human rights instead 
of human religions. 

People are asking me about the race problem — the 
negro problem. I know of no race problem. The 
great problem that confronts the American people 
to-day is a national problem — whether this great 
nation of ours is great enough to live up to its own con- 
victions, carry out its own declaration of independ- 
ence, and execute the provisions of its own constitu- 
tion. That is the only problem; and I believe you 
are the people that will solve it. 



^72 a Oti^tiruis of dfait]^. 

When in 1788 the Constitution of 
J^lfiflinSOtl. of the United States was adopted 
and a commemorative procession of 
five thousand people took place in Philadelphia, then 
the seat of government, a place in the triumphal 
march was assigned to the clergy, and the Jewish 
rabbi of the city walked between two Christian minis- 
ters, to show that the new republic was founded on re- 
ligious toleration. It seems strange that no historical 
painter, up to this time, has selected for his theme 
that fine incident. It should have been perpetuated 
in art, like the landing of the Pilgrims or Washing- 
ton crossing the Delaware. And side by side with it 
might well be painted the twin event which occurred 
nearly a hundred years later, in a Mohammedan coun- 
try, when in 1875 Ismael Pacha, then Khedive of 
Egypt, celebrated by a procession of two hundred 
thousand people the obsequies of his beloved and 
only daughter, placed the Mohammedan priests and 
Christian missionaries together in the procession, on 
the avowed ground that they served the same God, 
and that he desired for his daughter's soul the prayers 
of all. 

During the interval between these two great sym- 
bolic acts, the world of thought was revolutionized by 
modern science, and the very fact of religion, the very 
existence of a divine power, was for a time questioned. 
Science arose, like the caged Afrit in the Arabian 
story, and filled the sky. Then more powerful than 
the Afrit, it accepted its own limitations and achieved 
its greatest triumph in voluntarily reducing its claims. 
Supposed by many to have dethroned religion forever. 



i8rtiti)eri)0Dir, 173 



it now offers to dethrone itself and to yield place to 
imaginative aspiration — a world outside of science — 
as its superior. This was done most conclusively 
when Professor Tyndall, at the close of his Belfast 
address, uttered that fine statement, by which he will 
perhaps be longest remembered, that religion belongs 
not to the knowing powers of man, but to his creative 
powers. It was an epoch-making sentence. 

If knowing is to be the only religious standard, 
there is no middle ground between the spiritual 
despair of the mere agnostic and the utter merging of 
one's individual reason in some great organized 
church — the Roman Catholic, the Greek Catholic, the 
Mohammedan, the Buddhist. But if human aspira- 
tion, or in other words man's creative imagination, is 
to be the standard, the humblest individual thinker 
may retain the essence of religion and may, moreover, 
have not only one of these vast faiths but all of them 
at his side. Each of them alone is partial, limited, 
unsatisfying. 

Among all these vast structures of spiritual organ- 
ization there is sympathy. It lies not in what they 
know, for they are alike, in a scientific sense, in know- 
ing nothing. Their point of sympathy lies in what 
they have sublimely created through longing imagina- 
tion. In all these faiths is the same alloy of human 
superstition; the same fables of miracle and prophecy; 
the same signs and wonders; the same perpetual 
births and resurrections. In point of knowledge, all 
are helpless; in point of credulity, all are puerile; in 
point of aspiration, all sublime. All seek after God, 
if haply they might find him. All, moreover, look 



174 a CIi)Dru!ei n( Jfaiti). 

round for some human life more exalted than the rest 
which may be taken as God's highest reflection. 
Terror leads them to imagine demons, hungry to 
destroy, but hope creates for them redeemers mighty 
to save. Buddha, the prince, steps from his station; 
Jesus, the carpenter's son, from his, and both give 
their lives for the service of man. That the good thus 
prevails above the evil is what makes religion — even 
the conventional and established religion — a step for- 
ward, not backward, in the history of man. 

I know a woman who, passing in early childhood 
from the gentleness of a Roman Catholic convent to 
a severely Evangelical boarding-school, recalls dis- 
tinctly how she used in her own room to light matches 
and smell of the sulphur, in order to get used to what 
she supposed to be her doom. Time and the grace 
of God, as she thought, saved her from such terrors 
at last, but what chance of removal has the gloom of 
the sincere agnostic of the Clifford or Amberley type, 
who looks out upon a universe impoverished by the 
death of Deity? 

The pure and high-minded Clifford said : " We 
have seen the spring sun shine out of an empty 
heaven upon a soulless earth, and we have felt with 
utter loneliness that the Great Companion was 
dead." 

"In giving it up " (the belief in God and immor- 
tality) wrote Viscount Amberley, whom I knew in his 
generous and enthusiastic youth, with that equally 
high-minded and more gifted wife, both so soon to 
be removed by death, " we are resigning a balm for 
the wounded spirit, for which it would be hard to 



18roti)erJ)(itiir. 175 



find an equivalent in all the repertories of science 
and in all the treasures of philosophy." 

It is in escaping this dire tragedy — in believing 
that what we cease to hold by knowledge we can at 
least retain by aspiration — that the sympathy of 
religions comes in to help us. That sympathy unites 
the kindred aspirations of the human race. No man 
knows God; all strive with their highest powers to 
create him by aspiration; and we need in this vast 
effort not the support of some single sect alone, like 
Roman Catholics or Buddhists, but the strength and 
sympathy of the human race. What brings us here 
today? What unites us? But that we are altogether 
seeking after God, if haply we may find him. 

We shall find him, if we find him at all, individ- 
ually; by opening each for himself the barrier be- 
tween the created and the creator. If supernatural 
infallibility is gone forever there remain what Stuart 
Mill called with grander baptism supernatural hopes. 
It is the essence of a hope that it cannot be formu- 
lated or organized or made subject or conditional on 
the hope of another. All the vast mechanism of any 
scheme of salvation or religious hierarchy becomes 
powerless and insignificant beside the hope in a single 
human soul. Losing the support of any organized 
human faith we become possessed of that which all 
faiths collectively seek. Their joint fellowship gives 
more than the loss of any single fellowship takes 
away. We are all engaged in that magnificent work 
described in the Buddhist " Dhammapada" or *' Path 
of Light." ''Make thyself an island; work hard, be 
wise." If each could but make himself an island 



)^**^At^ 






176 a ittt^rujs of jFaiti). 

there would yet appear at last above these waves of 
despair or doubt a continent fairer than Columbus 
won. — Sympathy of Religions. 

In Islam caste lines are broken down. 
$lj^fi)ib* We find on one occasion Omar, one of the 
most energetic and vigorous of his Caliphs, 
exchanged with his slaves in riding on the camel. 
The daughters of Mohammed in the household would 
divide the time grinding corn with the slaves. The 
idea was taught, "your slave is your brother." 
Social conditions make him your slave, but he is none 
the less your brother. This idea of close fraternity, 
this extreme devotion to fraternity, was the cause of 
the Moslem triumph at arms. In the later years, after 
the death of Mohammed, that idea was paramount in 
every instance; and it was only when that bond of 
fraternity was broken that we find the decadence of 
the Islamistic power in Spain. 

As our doctrines teach us, all animate 
. SJifi^ta. and inanimate things were born from 

'*'^^^*' one heavenly deity, and every one of 

them has its particular mission ; so we ought to love 
them all and also to respect the various forms of 
religions in the world. They are all based, I believe, 
on the fundamental truth of religion. The difference 
between them is only in the outward form, influenced 
by variety of history, the disposition of the people 
and the physical conditions of the places where they 
originated. 



13rDti)eri)D0ir. 177 



t/L.tfVK.A*<v, 



These days will always be to us a mem- 
WitSLTit* ory of sweetness. Sweet, indeed, it has "C^ tj^^ 

been for God's long-separated children to ^^-^--^'Wru-t' 
meet at last, for those whom the haps and mishaps of 
human life have put so far apart, and whom the fool- 
ishness of the human heart has so often arrayed in 
hostility, here to clasp hands in friendship and in 
brotherhood, in the presence of the blessed and lov- 
ing father of us all ; sweet to see and feel that it is an 
awful wrong for religion, which is of the Lord of love, 
to inspire hatred, which is of the evil one ; sweet to 
tie again the bonds of affection broken since the days 
of Babel, and to taste " how good and how sweet a 
thing it is for brethren to live in unity." 

In the first place, while listening to utterances 
which we could not but approve and applaud, though 
coming from sources so diverse, we have had practical 
experimental evidence of the old saying that there is 
truth in all religions. And the reason is manifest. It 
is because the human family started from unity, from 
one undivided treasury of primitive truth, and when the 
separations and wanderings came they carried with 
them what they could of the treasure. 

We have seen how true it is that religion is a real- 
ity back of all religions. Religions are orderly or 
disorderly systems for the attainment of that great 
end, the union of man with God. 

Here we have heard the verdict of human society 
in all its ranks and conditions, the verdict of those 
who have most intelligently and most disinterestedly 
studied the problem of the improvement of human 
conditions, that only the wisdom and power of relig- 
12 



178 a atiioxm Df jFaiti^. 

ion can solve the mighty social problems of the future, 
and that, in proportion as the world advances toward 
the perfection of self-government, the need of religion, 
as a balance-power in every human life and in the 
relations of man with man and of nation with nation, 
becomes more and more imperative. 

It has been my fortune to travel in many 

Jf (eltr. lands, and I have not been in any part of 

^J^^ the world so dark but that I have found 

f Cv«*-«**aj4/^^™^ rays of light, some proof that the God who is 

' y our God and Father has been there, and that the 

Temples which are reared in many religions resound 

with sincere worship and praise to him. I am an 

American of the Americans. Born in New England, 

brought up in the strictest sect of the Pharisees, 

believing there was no good outside of our own little 

pale. I know, when I was a child, it was a serious 

question with me whether Democrats could be saved. 

I am happy to have arrived at a belief that they can 

be saved, though as by fire. 

Well, then, when I went across the ocean I thought 
a Roman Catholic was a terrible person — terrible. 
When I came to know the Roman Catholics, however, 
I found that I was a very poor specimen of Christian- 
ity beside the Sisters of Charity who I saw, and the 
noble Brothers devoted to every good, Christian, and 
benevolent office. Only a few weeks ago I was in 
Africa, and there made the acquaintance of some of 
the White Fathers designated by the Cardinal to carry 
the Gospel into the center of Africa. What devotion 
is there we can hardly parallel. I knew that some of 



i3roti)eri)tn3lr. 179 



them, the first that were sent out, had been killed in 
the Desert ; and yet at Carthage, I said to one of the 
White Fathers, " Are you willing to go into all those 
dangers?" "Yes," said he. "When? " " To-mor- 
row," was his reply. Such a spirit is magnificent, and 
wherever we see it, in any part of the world, in any 
church, we admire and honor it. 

Ah! but those fellows of the False Prophet, they 
have no religion in them! So I said until I had been 
in Constantinople and other cities of the East, when I 
heard the call for prayers from the minaret and where 
I saw the devotion of those men fluttering their white 
turbans like so many doves, at sunrise and sunset 
going to the house of prayer. I was told by one of 
the White Fathers about the observances of the 
Mohammedans. He said to me : " Do you know 
this is the first day of Ramadan, that of the Moham- 
medan Lent?" They observe their Lent a great deal 
better than we do ours. They are more earnest in 
their religion than we are in ours. They are more 
devoted in prayer. The poor camel-driver on the 
desert has no watch to tell him the hour; he dis- 
mounts from his camel and stands with his back to 
the sun, and the shadow cast on the sand tells him it 
is mid-afternoon and the hour of prayer. Shall I say 
that such men are beyond the pale of every religion, 
— that they are not regarded by the Great Father as 
his children? 

So in Bombay. I felt a great respect when I saw 
the Parsis at the rising and setting of the sun uncov- 
ering their heads in homage to the great source of 
life and light. So in the other religions of the East. 



i8o a (tfjotm Df jFaiti). 

Underneath all we find reverence to the great Supreme 
power, a desire to love and worship and honor him. 

There is a new form of religion dawn- 
5»PfWCft. ing upon the Western World, and I believe 
also upon the Eastern. Christianity was 
and is a composite faith, compounded of Jewish 
religious ideals, of Greek thought, Roman organiza 
tion, and of Germanic racial influences of domestic 
and social habit. The new religious ideal which is 
shaping the reform movements of Christianity, and of 
other great historic faiths as well, is the outgrowth on 
its thought-side of that new conception of the uni- 
verse and man's relation to it; that new conception 
which is cosmical and universal rather than racial or 
special. The new religious philosophy finds the syn- 
thesis of all religions in the universal and eternal 
elements of human aspiration toward the everlasting 
Truth, the absolute Right, the boundless Love and 
the perfect Beauty! This conception, in brief, puts at 
the center of all things perceived or experienced "one 
law, one light, one element, and one far-off Divine 
event toward which the whole creation moves." This 
new and scientific thought conception makes of mor- 
als, not a series of obligatory commands given by one 
God, or many gods, to one race or many races, but a 
turning of the will of man by the force of moral 
gravitation toward that central law which reveals 
itself in the human conscience, and is developed 
through social influences, and in obedience to which 
alone mankind finds his true orbit of action. This 
view of morals, which is fast becoming common to all 



58rt)t]^eri)ooir. isi 



enlightened men of all historic dates, has already- 
started the newest tendencies in the treatment of vice 
and crime. Those newest tendencies we set down as 
reformatory, those which aim to make over the crimi- 
nal and erring into law-abiding and respectable mem- 
bers of society. 

There are two sides of this new reformatory move- 
ment in penology, one which touches medical and 
one educational science. The first is busied with the 
pathology of crime and vice, and is concerned with 
the influence of heredity and original endowment; the 
other has to do with the culture of the morally defec- 
tive, and makes much of the effect of environment 
and training upon that original endowment. The 
first teaches an intelligent pity which traces evil to 
producing causes, and thus forbids all spiritual arro- 
gance to the well-born and bred. The other bids us 
make haste to give a new chance for growth to every 
ill-born and ill-bred man or woman; and, moreover, 
is showing us how we may act in determined and 
wise alliance with all those forces which make for 
general growth in the case of each undeveloped man 
or woman. 

The new scientific element in religion has given us 
social science of which enlightened penology is a part. 
The old word of religion said to the soul : " Be ye 
perfect here and now, no matter how ye were born or 
trained or in what depths of social degradation ye find 
yourself." The new religion says that also, such for- 
ever must be the clarion call to the will to work out a 
personal salvation or it will cease to be religion. The 
religion of the future, however, which is already born, 



1^2 a (ffiijorug Df jFaiti). 

has taken council of facts as well as of faith, and it 
has added social ideal to the personal. It has learned 
that evil heredity and poor physique and degraded 
home influences and bad social surroundings and too 
severe toil and too little happiness and education 
make for millions of mankind walled barriers of cir- 
cumstances behind which the dull and torpid soul 
catches but faint echoes of the Divine summons. 

The relation of this new religion to the criminal 
and erring classes is not only the tenderness of 
human sympathy which would not that any should 
perish ; it is the consecration of human wisdom to 
social betterment which shall yet forbid that any shall 
perish. In this new ideal of religion the call is not 
only to justice for the criminal and erring after they 
come within the scope of social control, but it is the 
call also to a study of those conditions in the individ- 
ual and in society which make for crime and vice ; 
and above all it is the call for the social lifting of all 
the weaker souls of our common humanity upon the 
winged strength of its wisest and best. The new 
social ideal in religion calls upon us to make this 
world so helpful a place to live in " for the least of 
these our brethren," that it shall yet be as easy for the 
will to follow goodness *'and the heart to be true, as 
for the grass to be green, or the skies to be blue," in 
the " natural way of living." 

The Brahmo-Somaj is the result, as 

yJU,^^^ iEagarfear. you know, of the influence of various 

^ , religions, and the fundamental princi- 

^^*Oi' pies of the theistic church in India is universal love, 

harmony of faiths, and unity of prophets, or rather unity 



of prophets and harmony of faiths. The reverence 
that we pay the other prophets and faiths is not mere 
lip loyalty, but it is the universal love for all the 
prophets and for all the forms and shades of truth by 
their own inherent merit. We try not only to learn 
in an intellectual way what those prophets have to 
teach, but to assimilate and imbibe these truths that 
are very near our spiritual being. It was the grand- 
est and noblest aspiration of the late Mr. Senn to 
establish such a religion in the land of India, which 
has been well known as the birth-place of a number 
of religious faiths. This is a marked characteristic of 
the East, and especially India, so that India and its 
outskirts has been glorified by the touch and teaching 
of the prophets of the world. 

Some men stand aloof and scorn and iM^vj^uf^Aj^ 
^tXfOtti' scoff the thought that there is any possi- 
ble relation between their religion and 
that of widely diverse types, but this anchor will hold 
amid all the tempests of religious wrath that may 
rage. And after these storms of vituperation shall 
have spent their fury, and editors shall have written 
leading articles and archbishops and sultans shall 
have predicted dire calamities, it will be found that 
the religious world, as well as the scientific and com- 
mercial, is in the relentless grasp of a divine purpose 
that will not let the people separate in the deep places 
of their lives. . 

Personal infallibility is not yet attained by anyone, 
inasmuch as personal fortunes are related to the 
infinite, and that sense of a lingering weakness which 



1^4 a atf^oxm Df Jfaitf). 

must be felt by all men must ally them with the 
world-wide necessity of a rugged and persistent sym- 
pathy. The world has been wounded by fragments 
of truth, whereas no man can ever be wounded by an 
entire truth. A detached truth fallen even from 
heaven would be voiceless, but relate it to the econ- 
omy of God's purposes and immediately it becomes 
vocal. It bears in its joyous or its tremulous tones 
the varying fortunes of every soul that God has 
made, and it tells the story of the Divine Spirit work- 
ing in and for all. And if the various and multiplied 
systems of theology had been written while the theo- 
logians were looking in the faces of their human 
brothers, many a judgment and confusion would have 
been greatly modified. If one hand had written 
while the other clasped a human hand the verdict 
would have been changed. The Word made flesh, 
or the Divine Spirit set forth in human form and 
fashion, gleaning out from human faces becomes very 
fender and considerate, while the mere theories of 
men lay no check upon those severities of judgment 
which have shattered this human world and rent it 
asunder in the name of religion. 

Back to the primal unity where man appears as a 
child of God, before he is a Christian or Jew, Brah- 
min or Buddhist, Mohammedan or Parsi, Confucian, 
Taoist, or aught beside, back to this must we go if 
we will be loyal to our kind and loyal to that imper- 
ishable religion that is born of human souls in con- 
tact with the spirit. Back to this, and thence we 
must follow the struggle of the Infinite child upward 
along his perilous ascent through the weary centuries 



IStDtJ^ertnrHr, 185 



to the ineffable light and glory that await him, led by 
the patient hand of God. 

Who will say that any man ever sincerely chose 
any religion for any other than a good purpose? It is 
incredible. And before the spectacle of an immortal 
soul seeking for and communing with its God, all 
hostilities must pause. No missile must be dis- 
charged. All the angers and furies must await on 
that mood and fact or worship, for an immortal soul 
talking with God is greater than a king. And while 
we wait in this divine silence let us read the profound 
and befitting word which Heaven has vouchsafed to 
the people of the Orient, and which has been pre- 
served to us through the ages in one of the " Sacred 
books of the East," The great deity said to the 
inquiring Aruna concerning the many forms of 
worship: "Whichever form of deity any worshiper 
desires to worship with faith, to that form I render 
his faith steady. Possessed of that faith he seeks to 
propitiate the deity in that form, and he obtains from 
it those beneficial things which he desires, though 
they are really given by me." 

Max Miiller says that what the world needs is a 
"bookless religion." It is precisely this bookless 
religion that the world already has, but does not 
realize it as it should. There is, I repeat, an experi- 
ence in human souls that lies deeper than the convic- 
tion of any book — a religious sense, a holy ecstacy 
that no book can create or describe. The book does 
not create the religion, the religion creates the book. 
We should have religion left if all the books should 
perish. The eternal emphasis must be placed upon 



iS6 a atifoxm of #aitf), 

that living spirit that lies back of all bibles, back of 
all institutions, and is the eternal reality forever dis- 
coverable, but never completely discovered. There 
is not a .piece of mechanism in all the Columbian 
Exposition that does not owe its effectiveness to a 
nearer approach to the idea which God concealed in 
the mechanical laws of the universe. The revelation 
came through somebody's discovery of it, and the 
same law holds good from the dust beneath our feet 
to the star dust of all the heavens, from the trembling 
of a forest leaf to the trembling ecstasies of the im- 
mortal soul. 

All true study of the facts of nature and 
5)Tt^ll- man is scientific study ; all true aspiration 
toward the ideal of the universe is religious 
aspiration. Into this union of religious science all 
men can enter, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, 
Mohammedans, Hindus, Buddhists, Confucianists, 
Jains, Taoists, Shintoists, Theosophists, Spiritualists, 
Theists, Pantheists, and Atheists, and none of them 
need feel out of place ; none of them need sacri- 
fice their favorite tenets; and none of them should 
dare to deny to any of the others a perfect right to 
stand upon the same platform of intelligent and 
impartial inquiry and to obtain a free and apprecia- 
tive audience for all that they can say on their own 
behalf. 

A great deal has been said about the union of sci- 
ence and religion ; much more important is the union 
of all men in science and religion, of which that most 
remarkable of all human assemblies which this build- 
ing now shelters is a glorious illustration. 



13ri3tf)eri)t)nir, 1S7 



And may this union become ever closer until, under 
the aegis of the true brotherhood, that demands no 
surrender of cherished beliefs but only an opening of 
the mind and heart upon a broader horizon, the whole 
race of mankind shall conscientiously and lovingly 
work together in the quest or illustration of the high- 
est truth and in the teaching and fulfillment of the 
supremest duty. 

Believe me, the future of the world, 
^Cdlboti^* like its past, lies in just such inward, 
personal, patient, spiritual reform. Out 
of the life of the individual flows the stream of the 
world. It is like some mighty river flowing through 
our midst which we want to use for daily drink, but 
which is charged with poison and turbid with refuse. 
How shall we cleanse this flowing stream ? Try to 
filter it as it sweeps by with its full current; but the 
task is prodigious, the impurity is persistent, the 
pollutions keep sweeping down on us from the sources 
of the stream. And then the wise engineer seeks 
those remote sources themselves. He cleanses each 
little brook, each secret spring, each pasture bank, 
and then from those guarded sources the great river 
bears down purity and health to the great world 
below. So the method of Christ purifies the modern 
world. It seeks the sources of life in the individual 
soul, and then out of the myriad such springs which 
lie in the hearts of men, the great stream of human 
progress flows into its own purer and broader future 
and the nations drink and are refreshed. 

We might as well face the fact that one of the 
severest tests of character which our time affords has 



Wava f-<;^yx «W>s^ 



i88 a ari)orus of jPaWj. 

to be borne by the rich. The person who proposes to 
to maintain simplicity and sympathy, responsibility 
and highmindedness in the midst of the wealth and 
luxury of the modern times, is undertaking that which 
he had better at once understand to be very hard. 
The rich have some advantages, but they unmistaka- 
bly have also many disadvantages, and the christiani- 
zation of wealth is beyond question the most serious 
of modern problems. 

But this is not saying that the rich men should be 
abolished. Wealth only provides a severer school for 
the higher virtues of life, and the man or woman who 
can really learn the lesson of that school has gained 
one of the hardest, but also one of the most fruitful 
experiences of modern times. Never before did the 
world provide so many opportunities for the services 
of wealth, and never before, thank God, did so many 
rich men hold their wealth as a trust for whose use 
they owe responsibility to their God. 

What is Christ's own attitude toward poverty ? 
Every soul, he says, no matter how humble or de- 
praved, is essential to God's kingdom. It has its part 
to take in the perfect whole. Every soul ought to be 
given a chance to do and be its best. It must be 
helped to help itself. The question of the Chris- 
tian is to make as much out of that life as can 
be made. It must be made the life of a man, not the 
life of a brutal, degraded mendicancy ; the life of a 
woman, not a life of starved and tempted labor. 

Thus Christian charity is not the mere relief of 
temporary distress, or the alms which may tempt to 
evil ; it is personal painstaking interest — the taking 



ISrntijcrljooir. 189 



trouble to lift up ; the dismounting, as you pass, like 
the Samaritan, pouring into the wounds of the fallen 
one the oil and wine you had meant for yourself ; the 
putting the victim of circumstances on your own 
beast, and taking him where he shall be cared for 
and healed. 

Christian Charity meets a drunken woman in the 
streets, as did a fair young girl the other day, takes 
the poor slatternly wretch gently round the waist, 
walks down the crowded thoroughfare, and puts the 
half unconscious woman to bed, warms some soup, 
leaves her to sleep, and then from day to day visits 
the home until for very love's sake the better life 
is found and the devil of drink cast out by the new 
affection. In short Christian charity sees in the indi- 
vidual that which God needs in his perfect world and 
trains it for that high end. There is more Christian 
charity in teaching a trade than in alms, in finding 
work than in relieving want. 

What Christ wants is the soul of His brother and 
that must be trained into personal power, individual 
capacity, self-help. Thus, true Christian charity is 
the one with the last principle of scientific charity. 
It is the transforming of a helpless dependent into a 
self-respecting worker. It is as when Peter and John 
stood at the beautiful gate of the Temple and the 
lame man lay there, as the passage says, " hoping that 
he might receive an alms"; but Peter fastened his 
eyes on him and said : " Silver and gold have I none, 
but such as I have give I unto thee. In the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk." 

But, in reality, there is one whole side of the teach- 



^9o a at^oxm of jFaitt)* 

ings of Jesus which such a view entirely ignores. Sup- 
pose one goes on to ask humbly : " Why does Christ 
thus appeal to the individual? Why is the single soul 
of such infinite worth to him? Is it for its own sake? 
Is there this tremendous significance about my little 
being and doing that it has its own isolated worth? 
Not at all. A man's life, taken by itself, is just what 
it seems, a very insignificant affair. What is it that 
gives significance to such a single life? It is its rela- 
tion to the whole of which it is a part. Just as each 
minutest wheel is essential in some great machine, 
just as the health of each slighted limb or organ in 
your body affects the vitality and health of the whole, 
so stands the individual in the organic life of the 
social world. "We are members of one another," » 
" We are one body in Christ," " No man liveth or 
dieth to himself" — so runs the Christian conception of 
the common life; and in this organic relationship the 
individual finds the meaning and worth of his own 
isolated self. What is this conception in Christ's own 
language? It is his marvelous ideal of what he calls 
"The Kingdom of God," that perfected world of 
humanity in which, as in a perfect body, each part 
should be sound and whole, and thus the body be 
complete. How Jesus looked and prayed for this 
coming of a better world! The Kingdom of Heaven 
is the one thing to desire. It is the good seed of the 
future. It is the leaven dropped into the mass of the 
world ; it is the hidden treasure ; the pearl of great 
price. It may come slowly, as servants look for a 
reckoning after years of duty done ; it may come sud- 
denly, as virgins wake and meet the bridegroom. — 
Christianity and the Social Question. 



THE SOUL. 



The winds that o'er my ocean run, 
Reach through all heavens beyond the sun ; 
Through life and death, through fate, through time, 
Grand breaths of God, they sweep sublime. 

O, thou God's mariner, heart of mine, 
Spread canvas to the airs divine! 
Spread sail ! and let thy Fortune be 
Forgotten in thy Destiny. 

For Destiny pursues us well. 

By sea, by land, through heaven or hell ; 

It suffers death alone to die. 

Bids life all change and chance defy. 

Life loveth life and good : then trust 
What most the spirit would, it must ; 
Deep wishes, in the heart that be. 
Are blossoms of necessity. 

A thread of Law runs through thy prayer, 
Stronger than iron cables are ; 
And Love and Longing toward her goal 
Are pilots sweet to guide the soul. 

So Life must live, and Soul must sail, 
And Unseen over Seen prevail, 
And all God's argosies come to shore. 
Let ocean smile, or rage, or roar. 

David A. Wasson. 



192 



THE SOUL. 

The human soul is eternal and JfvCvJ^^v 
ITlb^itawaH^a* immortal, perfect and infinite, and 
death means only a change of cen- 
ter from one body to another. The present is deter- 
mined by our past actions, and the future will be by 
the present. The soul will go on evolving up or re- 
verting back from birth to birth and death to death — 
like a tiny boat in a tempest, raised one moment on 
the foaming crest of a billow and dashed down into a 
yawning chasm the next, rolling to and fro at the 
mercy of good and bad actions — a powerless, helpless 
wreck in an ever raging, ever rushing, uncompromis- 
ing current of cause and effect — a little moth placed 
under the wheel of causation, which rolls on, crushing 
everything in its way, and waits not for the widow's 
tears or the orphan's cry. 

The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of 
nature. Is there no hope? Is there no escape? The 
cry that went up from the bottom of the heart of des- 
pair reached the throne of mercy and words of hope 
and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic Sage 
and he stood up before the world and in trumpet 
voice proclaimed the glad tidings to the world : 
"Hear, ye children of immortal bliss, even ye that re- 
sisted in higher spheres. I have found the ancient 
one, who is beyone all darkness, all delusion, and 
13 193 



194 a ati)t)ru^ of Jfaiti^. 

knowing him alone you shall be saved from death 
again." "Children of immortal bliss," what a sweet 
what a hopeful name. Allow me to call you, breth- 
ren, by that sweet name — heirs of immortal bliss — 
yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. Krishna 
taught that a man ought to live in this world like a 
lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never mois- 
tened by water — so a man ought to live in this world, 
his heart for God and his hands for work. 

It is good to love God for hope of reward in this 
or the next world, but it is better to love God for 
love's sake, and the prayer goes, "Lord, I do not 
want wealth, nor children, nor learning. If it be thy 
will I will go to a hundred hells, but grant me this, 
that I may love thee without the hope of reward — 
unselfishly love for love's sake." One of the disciples 
of Krishna, the then Emperor of India, was driven 
from his throne by his enemies and had to take 
shelter in a forest in the Himalayas with his queen, 
and there one day the queen was asking him how it 
was that he, the most virtuous of men, should suffer 
so much misery, and Yuchistera answered : "Behold, 
my queen, the Himalayas, how grand and beautiful 
they are. I love them. They do not give me any- 
thing, but my nature is to love the grand, the beauti- 
ful; therefore I love them. Similarly, I love the 
Lord. He is the source of all beauty, of all sublimity. 
He is the only object to be loved. My nature is to 
love him, and therefore I love. I do not pray for 
anything. I do not ask for anything. Let him 
place me wherever he likes. I must love him for 
love's sake. I cannot trade in love," 



2ri)e S^duL 195 

The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held 
under bondage of matter, and perfection will be 
reached when the bond shall burst, and the word they 
use is, therefore, Mukto — freedom, freedom from the 
bonds of imperfection ; freedom from death and 
misery. — The Religion of Hinduism. 

The age, we are told, calls for men Q 
©UlOtt. worthy of that name. Who are those ,^ 

worthy to be called men? Men assuredly 
whose intelligences and wills are divinely illuminated 
and strengthened. This is precisely what is produced 
by the gifts of the Holy Spirit; they enlarge all the 
faculties of the soul at once. The age is superficial; 
it needs the gift of Wisdom. The age is materialistic; 
it needs the gift of Intelligence. The age is capti- 
vated by a false and one-sided science; it needs the 
gift of Science. The age is in disorder and is ignor- 
ant of the way to true progress; it needs the gift of 
Counsel. The age is impious; it needs the gift of 
Piety. The age is sensual and effeminate; it needs 
the gift of Fortitude. The age has lost and forgotten 
God; it needs the gift of Fear. Men endowed with 
these gifts are the men for whom, if it but knew it, 
the age calls. One such soul does more to advance 
the kingdom of God than tens of thousands without 
those gifts. 

Religion taken, then, at the highest development, 
which is Christianity, is the elevation of man to union 
with God, in an order of life transcending the natural. 
It attains this end by elevating the soul to heavenly 
wisdom in divine faith, heavenly life in divine love. 



196 a atf)ntug of jFaitf). 

It will be seen that the ideal religious character is not 
formed by constant absorption in thoughts of the 
Deity's attributes of sovereignty, but rather by medi- 
tation on all the attributes, loving-kindness being 
supreme. For the same reason it is not obedience 
that holds the place of honor among the virtues; in 
forming the filial character love is supreme. Love 
outranks all virtues. The greatest of these is charity. 
It is not the spirit of conformity, but that of union, 
which rules the conduct of a son. 

It never can be said that it is by reason of obedi- 
ence that men love, but it must always be said of 
obedience that it is by reason of love that it is made 
perfect. Obedience generates conformity, but love 
has a fecundity which generates every virtue, for it 
alone is wholly unitive. The highest boast of obedi- 
ence is that it is the first-born of love. As the Humanity 
said of the Divinity, "I go to the Father, because the 
Father is greater than I," so obedience says of love, 
"I go to my parent virtue, for love is greater than I." 

Hence, not the least fault we find with the religious 
Separation of the last three hundred years is, that it 
has unduly accentuated the sovereignty of God. — The 
Supreme End of Religion. 

There is no moment in this or in the 
^a^L,,^ * ^ISHattftt. future life when the infinite mercy of the 
« Lord would not that an evil man should 

turn from his evil course and live a virtuous and up- 
right and happy life; but they will not in that world 
for the same reason that they would not in this, be- 
cause when evil habits are once fixed and confirmed 



they love them and will not turn from them. ** Can 
the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his 
spots? Then may they also do good who are accus- 
tomed to do evil." Heaven is a heaven of man and 
the life of heaven is human life. The conditions of 
life in that exalted state are greatly different from the 
conditions here, but it is a human life adapted to 
such transcendent conditions, and the laws of life in 
that world, as we have seen, are the same as in this. 
Man was created to be a free and willing agent of the 
Lord to bless his kind. His true happiness comes 
not in seeking happiness for himself, but in seeking 
to promote the happiness of others. Where all are 
animated by this desire, all are mutually and recip- 
rocally blest. 

Such a state is heaven, whether measurably in this 
world or fully and perfectly in the next. Then must 
there be useful ways in heaven by which we can con- 
tribute to each other's happiness. And of such kind 
will be the employment of heaven, for there must be 
useful employments. There could be no happiness 
without beings who are designed and formed for 
usefulness to others. What the employments are in 
that exalted condition we cannot well know except as 
some of them are revealed to us, and of them we 
have faint and feeble conception. But undoubtedly 
one of them is attendance upon men in this world. — 
Swedenborgian Doctrine of the Soul. 



198 a (tifoxm of dfaiti). 

Do not think the bitterness of infidels 
(UtEtUJS* is an evidence of their irreligious spirit. 
Acrimony is the expression of disappoint- 
ment in religious teachings, but indicates very fre- 
quently a deep religious sentiment. Therefore do 
not consider free-thinkers as enemies of religion, but 
learn to regard them as your brethren who have 
passed into a phase of their religious development 
which may be necessary to their higher evolution. 
We must sometimes pass through all the despair of 
infidelity and religious emptiness before we can learn 
to appreciate the glory and grandeur of a higher 
stage of religious life. When infidelity is the result 
of a sincere love of truth do not look upon it as irre- 
ligious. Any one who dares to have convictions and 
is earnest in them is religious. He who is sincere 
will always in the end find the right way. Bear in 
mind all truth is religious, and this includes all scien- 
tific truth. 

Science destroys dogmatism, but he who sees 
deeper will soon perceive that no harm is done, for 
science preserves the real spirit of religion; it 
enhances truth. That conception of religion which 
rejects science is inevitably doomed. Nevertheless, 
religion itself will not go. Science is the method of 
reaching for the truth, and religion is the good will 
and enthusiasm to live a life of truth. 

First, all the young men of the 
^ 5Kitftci)jlatt. orient who have the deepest religious 

convictions, stand for the dignity of 
man. I regret that I should have to commence here ; 
but, out of the combined voices and arguments of 



philosophies and theologies there comes before us 
such an unavoidable inference on an imperfect human- 
ity that we have to come out before we can speak on 
any religion for ourselves and say : " We believe that 
we are men." For us it is a libel on humanity and 
an impeachment of the God who created man, to say 
that man is not sufficient within himself and that he 
needs religion to come and make him perfect. It is 
libeling humanity to look upon this or that family of 
man and to say that they show conceptions of good- 
ness and truth and high ideals and a life above simple 
animal desires, because they have had religious teach- 
ing by this or that man or a revelation from heaven. 
We believe that if man is man he has it all in himself, 
just as he has all his bodily capacities. Will you tell 
me that a cauliflower that I plant in the fields grows 
up in beauty and perfection of its convolutions, and 
that my brain, which the same God has created a hun- 
dred thousand times more delicate and perfect, cannot 
develop its convolutions and do the work that God 
intended I should do and have the highest concep- 
tions that he intended I should have ; that a helpless 
pollywog will develop and become a frog with perfect, 
elastie limbs and a heaving chest, and that frogs will 
keep together in contentment and croak in unity, and 
that men need religion and help from outside in 
order that I may develop into the perfection of a man 
in body and soul and recognize the brotherhood of 
man and live upon God's earth in peace? I say it is 
an impeachment of God, who created man to promul- 
gate and acquiesce in any such doctrine. 



200 ai at^ioxm of jFaWj. 

In saying that Christianity is an 
jFlBJ^t, "Historical Religion" more is meant, of 
course, than that it appeared at a certain 
date in the world's history. This is true of all the 
religions of mankind, except those which grew up at 
times prior to authentic records and sprung up 
through a spontaneous, gradual process. The signifi- 
cance of the title of this paper is that, in distinction 
from every system of religious thought or speculation, 
like the philosophy of Plato or Hegel, and from every 
religion which consists exclusively or almost exclu- 
sively, like Mohammedanism, of doctrines and pre- 
cepts, Christianity incorporates in its very essence 
facts or transactions on the plane of historical action. 

These are not accidents, but are fundamental in 
the religion of the Gospel. The preparation of 
Christianity is indissolubly involved in the history of 
ancient Israel, which comprises a long succession of 
events. The Gospel itself is, in its foundations, made 
up of historical occurrences, without which, if it does 
not dissolve into thin air, it is transformed into some- 
thing quite unlike itself. Moreover, the postulates of 
the Gospel, or the conditions which make its function 
in the world of mankind possible and rational, are 
likewise in the realm of fact, as contrasted with theo- 
retic conviction or opinion. 

There is a disposition to overlook this grand pecu- 
liarity of Christianity, that whatever is essential and 
most precious in it lies in the sphere of spirit — of 
freedom. We are taken out of the region of meta- 
physical necessity and placed among personal beings 
and among events which find their solution, and all 



Htfft S^ul. 201 

the solution of which they are capable, in the free 
movement of the will and affections. To seek for an 
ulterior cause can have no other result than to blind 
us to the real nature of the phenomena which we have 
to explain. In order to present the subject in a clear 
light let me ask the reader to reflect for a moment on 
the nature of sin. Look at any act, whether com- 
mitted by yourself or another, which you feel to be 
iniquitous. This verdict, with the self-condemnation 
and shame that attend it, imply that no good reason 
can be given for such an act. Much more do they 
imply that it forms no part of that natural develop- 
ment and exercise of our faculties over which we have 
no control. It is an act, a free act, a breaking away 
from reason and law, having no cause behind the 
sinner's will, and admitting of no further explication. 

Do you ask why one sins ? The only answer to be 
given is that he is foolish and culpable. You strike 
upon an ultimate fact and you will stay by the fact, 
but to endeavor to make it rational or inevitable you 
must deny morality, deny that sin is sin and guilt is 
guilt, and pronounce the simple belief in personal 
responsibility a delusion. What we have said of a 
single act of wrong doing holds good, of course, of 
morally evil habits and principles. 

Suppose again an act of love and self-sacrifice. A 
man resolves to give up his life for a religious cause, 
or a woman, like Florence Nightingale, to forsake her 
pleasant home for the discomforts and exposures of a 
soldiers' hospital. What shall be said of these actions ? 
Why, plainly you have done with the explanation when 
you come back to that principle of free benevolence — 






202 a ati)orug of dfaiti^. 

to the noble and loving heart — from which they 
spring. To make them links in some necessary pro- 
cess by which they no longer originate in the full 
sense of the word, in a free preference lying in a 
sphere apart from natural development and inevitable 
causation, would be an insult to the soul itself. 

Or take a benevolent act of another kind — the for- 
giveness of an injury. A man whom you have griev- 
ously injured magnanimously foregoes his right to 
exact the penalty, though if he were to exact it you 
would have no right to complain. His forgiveness is 
an act, the beauty of which is due to its being a pre- 
resolve on his part, a willing gift, a voluntary love. 
The supposition of an exterior cause which reduces 
this act to a mere effect of organization or mental 
constitution, or any anything else, destroys the very 
thing which you take in hand to explain. And the 
consequence would follow if the injury which calls 
forth pardon were resolved into something besides an 
unconstrained inexcusable, unreasonable, and, in this 
sense, unaccountable act. — Christianity^ an Historical 
Religion. 

There is no people without a relig- 
HB'J^atlPf. ion, how low soever it may be in the 
scale of civilization. If there be any in whom the 
religious idea seems extinct, though this cannot be 
certainly shown, it is because their intelligence has 
come to that degree of degradation in which it has no 
longer anything human save the capacity of being 
lifted to something higher. The explanations that 
have been offered of the religious sentiment inborn 



in man might be qualified as " truly curious and amus- 
ing were it not a question of matters so grave." 

For some it is unreflecting instinct. Be it so; but 
whence came this instinct? Doubtless from nature. 
And nature, what is it? It is reality, as we have said. 
True instinct does not deceive. For others, religion 
arises from the need man experiences of relationship 
with superior beings. Religious sentiments and con- 
cepts are innate in man. They enter into the consti- 
tution of his nature, which itself comes from its 
author and master; they impose themselves as a duty 
upon man, as the declaration of universal conscience 
attests. The idea of a being superior to humanity, 
its master, comes from the very depths of human 
nature and is rendered sensible to the intellect by 
the spectacle of the universe. No reasonable mind 
can suppose that this vast world has of itself created 
or formed itself. This is so true that men of science, 
the most hostile to religion, the moment they perceive 
some evidence of design upon a stone, however 
deeply imbedded in the earth, themselves proclaim 
that man has passed here. 

That the soul is immortal is doubted 
<$^anllC. by very few. It is an old declaration that 
whatever begins in time must end in time. 
You cannot say that soul is eternal on one side of its 
earthly period without being so in the other. If the 
soul sprang into existence specially for this life, why 
should it continue afterward ? The ordinary idea of 
creation at birth involves the correlative of annihila- 
tion at death. Moreover, it does not stand to reason 






204 a atffoxm ot 4Faiti^. 

that from an infinite history the soul enters this world 
for its first and all physical existence, and then 
merges into an endless spiritual eternity. The more 
reasonable deduction is that it has passed through 
many lives and will have to pass through many more 
before it reaches its ultimate goal. But it is directed 
that we have no memory of past lives. Can any one 
recall his childhood ? Has anyone a memory of that 
wonderful epoch — infancy? 

The companion doctrine of transmigration is the 
doctrine of Karma. The Sanskrit of the word Karma 
means action. "With what measure ye mete, it shall 
be measured to you again " and " Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap" are but the corol- 
laries of that most intricate law of Karma. It solves 
the problem of the inequality and apparent injustice 
of the world. — The Ethics and History of the Jains. 

Under the behest of religion the ordin- 
lL(U)t0* ary duties of life, its cares and perplexities 
T,^ are really set aside, not simply refrained 

from. Such a rest day promotes all that is best; it is 
not merely a time for physical inaction. It raises men 
into companionship with God and with good. It is 
not burdened with hair-splitting distinctions about 
what is worldly, what may be done or what may not 
be done. Not "Thou shalt not do," but "I delight to 
do thy will, O God." is its language. 

Nothing less than sacred time can meet such de- 
mands. Sacred places and sacred shrines cannot come 
to them as time does. They are too far removed from 
God and too local as to men. They cannot speak to 



the soul as time speaks. Sacred hours are God's 
unfolding presence, lifting the soul and holding it 
in heavenly converse. Social worship comes only 
through specified time. Religious intercourse among 
men, whereby each stimulates the other's faith and aids 
the other's devotion, is an inevitable result of sacred 
time, and is unattainable without it. Sacred time 
cultivates religious life by spiritual communion; by 
wholesome instruction and by healthful spiritual sur- 
soundings. It preserves and develops religious life 
by continual recurrence. — The Divine Element in the 
Weekly Rest Day. 

^^^(%j^ . As I read the signs of the times I think 

StaittOlt. the next form of religion will be the " Re- 
ligion of Humanity," in which men and 
women will worship what they see of the divine in 
each other ; the virtues, the beatitudes, the possibili- 
ties ascribed to deity reflected in mortal beings. The 
forces and qualities the most exalted mind ascribes to 
his ideal God are reproduced in a less degree in the 
noble men and women who have glorified the race. 
Judging man by his works, what shall we say to the 
seven wonders of the world, of the Colossus of Rhodes, 
Diana's Temple at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Hali- 
carnassus, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Pharos at Alex- 
andria, the Hanging Gardens at Babylon and the 
Olympian Zeus? True, these are all crumbling to 
dust, but change is law, too, in all nature's works. 

The manifestation of man's power is more varied 
and wonderful as the ages roll on. Who can stand in 
St. Peter's at Rome, and listen to the deep-toned 



2o6 a (ffiijorujs df jFaiti)* 

organ reverberating from arch to arch with a chorus 
of human voices alike pathetic and triumphant in their 
hymns of praise, without feeling the divine harmony 
in architecture, poetry, and song? And yet man, so 
small in stature, conceived and perfected that vast 
cathedral with its magnificent dome, strung every key 
in that grand organ to answer to a master's touch and 
trained every voice in that great choir to melody, to 
perfect time and tune — a combination in grandeur 
surpassing far the seven wonders of the world. 

And what shall we say of the discoveries and in- 
ventions of the past fifty years, by which the labors of 
the world have been lifted from the shoulders of men, 
to be done henceforth by the tireless machines. Be- 
hold the magnitude of the works accomplished by 
man in our day and generation. He has leveled 
mountains and bridged chasms; with his railroads he 
has linked the Atlantic and Pacific, the Rocky and 
Alleghany mountains .together; with steam and the 
ocean cable he has anchored continents side by side 
and melted the nations of the earth in one. With 
electricity man has opened such vistas of wonder and 
mystery that scientists and philosophers stand amazed 
at their own possibilities, and in the wake of all these 
triumphs we are startled with new mysteries revealed 
by physical researches into what has hitherto been the 
unseen universe. 

Man has manifested wisdom too, as well as power. 
In fact what cardinal virtue has he not shown, through 
all the shifting scenes of the passing centuries? The 
page of history glows with the great deeds of noble 
men and women. What courage .and heroism, Iwhat 



5ri)e Soul. 207 

self-sacrifice and sublime faith in principle have they 
not shown in persecution and death, amid the horrors 
of war, the sorrows of exile, and the weary years of 
prison life ? What could sustain mortal man in his 
awful " solitude of self " but the fact that the great 
moral forces of the universe are bound up in his or- 
ganization ? What are danger, death, exile and dun- 
geon walls to the great spirit of life incarnate in him? 
The new religion will teach the dignity of human 
nature and its infinite possibilities for development. 
Its believers will not remain forever in the valley of 
humiliation, confessing themselves in the church ser- 
vice on each returning Sabbath day to be " miserable 
sinners " imploring the good Lord to deliver them 
from the consequences of violated law, but the new 
religion will inspire its worshipers with self-respect, 
with noble aspirations to attain diviner heights from 
day to day than they yet have reached. It will teach 
individual honesty and honor in word and deed, in 
all relations of life. It will teach the solidarity of the 
race that all must rise or fall as one. Its creed will be 
Justice, Liberty, Equality for all the children of earth. 
It will teach our practical duties to man in this life, 
rather than sentimental duties to God in fitting our- 
selves for the next life. A loving human fellowship 
is the real divine communion. The spiritual life is 
not a mystical contemplation of divine attributes, but 
the associated development of all that is good in 
human character. 



2o8 a atifoxm ot jFaiti). 

'tt^Ui^ * ^^ ^^ fervently pray and earnestly 

'Uf^i^9^^ 'B.XUttt* hope that the meeting held this day will 
tf^t^f*^ start a wave of influences that will change 

some of the Christians of this land that they recognize 
the brotherhood of man, will from this time forward 
accord to us, that which we receive in every land 
except this " land of the free and home of the brave." 
All we ask is the right of an American citizen; the 
right to life, liberty, and happiness, and that be given 
us the right and privileges that belong to every citizen 
of a Christian commonwealth. It is not pity we ask 
for, but justice; it is not help, but a fair chance. We 
ask not to be carried, but to be given an opportunity 
to walk, run, or stand alone in our own strength or to 
fall in our own weakness; we are not begging for 
bread, but for an opportunity to earn bread for our 
wives and children. Treat us not as wards of a nation 
nor as objects of pity, but treat us as American citi- 
zens, as Christian men and women. Do not chain your 
doors and bar your windows and deny us a place in 
society, but give us the place that our intelligence, our 
virtue, our industry, and our courage entitle us to. 
"But admit none but the worthy and well qualified." 
We do not shun judgment, but we ask to be 
judged justly and without prejudice; hear both sides 
of our case before you render a verdict, and then 
render it according to the testimony given. Judge 
us not by the color of our skin, nor the texture of our 
hair, but judge us by our intelligence and character. 
When you weigh us, weigh our virtues against our 
vices; our intelligence against our ignorance; our 
industry against Qur idleness; our accumulations 



Si^e S^uL 209 

against our poverty; our courage against our 
cowardice; our strength against our weakness. — 
Christianity and the Negro. 

The Anabaptists taught in the six- 
ILOtintft* teenth century that every Christian has 
in himself a divine guide whom he must 
follow at any cost; even as Hans Denck, described by 
Keller as their apostle, declared: "This I know in 
myself certainly to be the truth; therefore, I will if 
God will listen to what it shall say to me; him that 
would take it from me, I will not permit." This faith 
in the " inner light " has survived the swift flight of 
nearly four hundred years, and is cherished to-day not 
only among the Baptists but among others who have 
no direct connection with them. I do not say that 
this doctrine has not been modified, refined of crudi- 
ties, and freed from excesses in its transmission from 
the past, but I do maintain that in all of its essential 
meaning it has been transmitted to the present. And 
what is more, this conception, once the almost exclu- 
sive possession of lowly, humble men, has found 
something like recognition in the transcendentalism 
of Emerson, and in the poetry of Robert Browning. 
In Paracelsus the poet writes : 

There is an inmost center in us all. 
Where truth abides in fullness; and around, 
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, 
This perfect, clear perception, which is truth; 
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh 
Blinds it, and makes all error; and *• to know " 
Rather consists in opening out a way 
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, 
Than in effecting entry for a light 
Supposed to be without. 

14 



2IO 



a (iti)oxm of jTaiti). 



But a greater than Browning has said : "Howbeit 
when he, the spirit of truth, is come he will guide you 
into all truth; for he will not speak of himself, but 
whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak; and he 
will show you things to come." 

Were there as many churches as there are men, if 
they were all honest and faithful, it would be better 
for the world than for there to be only one church, if 
to be members thereof multitudes had to forswear 
their convictions and crucify their sense of duty. 

One man centered in truth and breathing truth 
will achieve more for society than a thousand held 
together by conventionalism and by a creed which 
has become incredible to intelligence. I am not 
pleading for divisions Far from it. I would do 
everything in my power to abate differences and unify 
Christianity. But this seeming to be, this fiction of 
oneness, which gentle enthusiasts are deluded by, is 
humiliating in the extreme. It assumes what is not a 
fact, or it implies that professedly upright men have 
deliberately stultified themselves by pretending to 
what is not true. 



When all this is included it will be 
^ HtunttttOntl. seen that evolution, organic evolution, 

is but the earlier chapter of Christian- 
ity, and that Christianity is but the later evolution. 
There can be but one verdict then as to the import 
of evolution, as to its bearings on the individual life 
and future of the race. The supreme message of 
science to this age is that all nature is on the side of 
the man who tries to rise. Evolution, development, 



Ci^e S^uL 



211 



and progress are not only on her program; they are 
her program. For all things are rising — all world, 
all planets, all stars, all suns. An ascending energy 
is the universe, and the whole moves on with one 
mighty ideal and anticipation. The aspiration of the 
human mind and heart is but the evolutionary ten- 
dency of the universe. Darwin's great discovery, or 
the discovery which he brought into prominence, is 
the same as that of Galileo, that the world moves. 
The Italian prophet says it moves from west to east. 
The English philosopher says it moves from low to 
high. 

As in the days of Galileo, there are many now who 
do not see that the world moves, men to whom the 
world is an endless plane, a prison fixed in a purpose- 
less universe, where untried prisoners await their 
unknown fate. It is not the monotony of life that 
destroys; it is the pointlessness. They can bear its 
weight; its meaninglessness crushes them. The same 
revolution that the discovery of the axial rotation of 
the earth effected in the world of physics the doctrine 
of evolution will make in the moral world. Already 
a sudden and marvelous light has fallen upon the 
earth. Evolution is less a doctrine than a light. It 
is a light revealing in the chaos of the past a perfect 
and growing order, giving meaning even to the con- 
fusion of the present, discovering through all the 
denseness around us the paths to progress and flash- 
ing its rays upon the coming goal. 

Men began to see an undivided ethical purpose in 
this material world, a tide that from eternity has never 
turned, making to perfectness in that vast progression 



212 



a (ffii)oru!5 of dfaiti^. 



of nature, that vision of all things from the first of 
time, moving from low to high, from incompleteness 
to completeness, from imperfection to perfection. 
The moral nature recognizes in all its height and 
depth the eternal claim upon itself — wholeness and 
perfection to holiness and righteousness. These have 
always been required of man, but never before on the 
natural plan have they been proclaimed by voices so 
commanding or enforced by sanctions so great and 
rational. 

Instead of robbing the world of God science has 
done more than all the philosophies and natural the- 
ologies to sustain the theistic conception. It has 
made it impossible for the world to worship any other 
God. The sun and the moon and the stars have been 
found out; science has shown us exactly what they are. 
No man can worship them any more. 

If science has not, by searching, found out God, it 
has not found any other God, nor anything else like a 
God that might continue to be a conceivable and 
rational object of worship in a scientific age. If by 
searching it has not found God it has found a place 
for God. As never before from the purely physical 
side of things it has shown there is room in the world 
for God. It has given us a more Godlike God. The 
new energies in the world demand a will and an ever 
present will. To science God no longer made the 
world and then withdrew; he pervades the whole. 
Under the old view God was a non-resident God 
and an occasional wonder worker. Now he is always 
here. 

It is certain that every step of science discloses the 



attributes of the Almighty with a growing magnifi- 
cence. The author of " Natural Religion " tells us 
that the average scientific man worships at present a 
more awful, and, as it were, a greater Deity than the 
average Christian. Certain it is that the Christian view 
and the scientific view together form a conception of 
the object of worship such as the world in its highest 
inspiration never reached before. Never before have 
the attributes of eternity and immensity and infinity 
clothed themselves with language so majestic in its 
sublimity. Mr. Huxley tells us that he would like to 
see a Sunday-school established in every parish. If 
this only were to be taught we should be rich indeed 
to be qualified to be the teachers in those Sunday- 
schools. 

A better understanding of the genesis and nature 
of sin may modify, at least, some of the attempts 
made to get rid of it, whether in a national or indi- 
vidual life. But the time is not ripe to speak with 
more than the greatest caution and humility of these 
still tremendous problems. There is an intellectual 
covetousness abroad which is neither the fruit nor the 
friend of a scientific age. The haste to be wise, like 
the haste to be rich, leads many to speculate in 
indifferent securities, and can only end in fallen 
fortunes. Theology must not be bound up with such 
speculations. 

At the same time speculation must continue to be 
its life and its highest duty. We are sometimes 
warned that the scientific method has dangers and are 
told not to carry it too far. But it is then after all it 
becomes chiefly dangerous, when we are warned not 



214 a ati^ciru!3 of dFairij. 

to carry it too far. Apart from all details, apart from 
the influence of modern science on points of Christian 
theology, that to which most of us look with eager- 
ness and gratitude is its contribution to applied 
Christianity. The true answer to the question, is 
there any conflict between Christianity and theology, 
is that in practice at all events the two are one. 

What is the object of Christianity ? It is the 
evolving of men, the making of higher and better 
men in a higher and better world. That is also the 
object of evolution — what evolution has been doing 
since time began. Christianity is the further evolu- 
tion. It is an evolution reinforced with all the moral 
and spiritual forces that have entered the world and 
cleaved to humanity through Jesus Christ. Begin- 
ning with atoms and crystals, passing to plants and 
animals, evolution finally reaches man. But unless 
it ceases to be scientific fact it cannot stop there. It 
must go on to include the whole man, and all the 
work and thought and light and aspiration of man. 
The great moral facts, the moral forces, so far as they 
are proved to exist, the Christian consciousness, so 
far as it is real, must come within its scope. Human 
history is as much a part of it as natural history. — 
Christianity and Evolution. 

Some two years ago I took a thousand 
CoittllllJEJ, children from the public schools. I se- 
lected the voices that seemed most musi- 
cal, but I always chose those from poor families, other 
things being equal. Those children have been work- 
ing with me for about two years, preparing to sing, 



as they have been recently singing in the World's 
Fair. These children came not from the avenues, 
but from the alleys. They were disorderly, they were 
a little rough. They did not know what was wanted of 
them. They came to get something for nothing, and 
determined to have more than their companions if 
possible. They went through the music as I have 
attempted to describe it to you, and soon, through the 
influence of this, better results came. There was no 
longer an abuse of the imagination, but its use in the 
line of practical things. Soon there came little atoms, 
if I may say, no larger than a mustard seed, of action 
toward each other, of better sentiments toward brothers 
and sisters or teachers and parents. 

Now, the trouble with us musicians is that, in the 
excess of our sentiment when we go into action, we 
are looking for some big mountain to move, and prob- 
ably the only action that will be thrust in our path 
will be something not larger than a mustard seed. 
Those little children sang and almost filled the city 
with songs of gladness as individuals. We were told 
to watch them and notice the development of their 
characters. The little boy had some little thing to do 
perhaps to find something for his sister, open the 
door or something of that kind, and so on to bigger 
things. Some of those children afterward went to the 
hospitals and sang. Some started little classes for 
their companions. One boy has started an " Old 
Clothes Club," to which boys and girls bring old 
shoes and garments that are afterward distributed to 
old people. Another started a little pliilanthropic 
newspaper. Those things are being done without 



2i6 a ati)ntU53 of jfaWj. 

suggestions from the teachers. And shows that the 
children are carrying their singing into action. To- 
day most of them are occupied in some such manner. 
It is my desire to show you that in art, as in relig- 
ion, the lines all lead upward. — Religion and Music. 

Liberalism thus far has been ethical and 
^Ifft. shallow. Evangelicanism has been dog- 
matic, tyranical, and cruel, to some extent 
irrational, but it has always been profound. It has 
battled with the real problems which the liberalists 
have simply blinked at, and settled these problems in 
universal agreement. For example, the doctrine of 
the fall of Adam. There was a real problem. The 
world is full of evil; God is perfect; he could not 
create imperfections. How happened it? Why, man 
was created all right, but he fell. It was an amazingly 
original, subtle, and profound stroke to settle a real 
problem. The liberal came up and, saying it was not 
the true solution, they blinked at the problem and 
denied that it existed. Now the real solution seems 
to me is not that the evils in the universe have come 
from a fall. 

The fall of an arch-demoniac spirit in heaven does 
not settle the problem; it only moves it back one step. 
How did he fall ? Why did he fall ? There can be no 
fall in the archetypal of God. Creatures were created 
in freedom to choose between good and evil in order 
that through their freedom and the discipline of 
struggle with evil they might become the perfected 
and redeemed images of God. That settles the prob- 
lem, and we can all agree on that. Of course you 



want an hour to expound it. This hint may seem ab- 
surd, but there is more in it. Finally, I want to say, 
we must change the emphasis from the world of death 
to this world. Redemption must not be postponed 
to the future. It must be realized on the earth. I 
don't think it is heresy to say that we must not con- 
fine the idea of Christ to the mere historic individual, 
Jesus of Nazareth; but we must consider that Christ is 
not merely the individual. He is the completed 
genus incarnate. He is the absolute generic unity of 
the human race in manifestation. Therefore, he is not 
the follower of other men, but their divine exemplar. 
We must not limit our worship of Christ to the mere 
historic person, but must see in the individual person 
the perfected genus of the divine humanity, which is 
God himself, and realize that that is to be multiplied. 
It cannot be divided, but it may be multiplied 
commensurately with the dimensions of the whole 
human race. — The Religious Unification of the Race. 

Does the view of man as the crown of 
^tUC^. evolutionary process throw any light on his 
eternal destiny? Does it contain any 
promise of immortality? Here one feels inclined to 
speak with bated breath. A hope so august, so incon- 
ceivably great, makes the grasping hand of faith 
tremble. We are tempted to exclaim, behold, we 
know not anything. Yet, it is worthy of note that 
leading advocates of evolutionism are among the 
most pronounced upholders of immortality. Mr. 
Fiske says: "For my own part I believe in the im- 
mortality of the soul, not in the sense in which I 



(^jAj^ 



accept the demonstrable proofs of a science, but as a 
supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God's 
work." He cannot believe that God made the world, 
and especially its highest creature, simply to destroy 
it like a child who builds houses out of rocks just for 
the pleasure of knocking them down. Not less 
strongly Le Conte writes: "Without spirit-immor- 
tality this beautiful cosmos which has been develop- 
ing into increasing beauty for so many millions of 
years, when its evolution has run its course and all is 
over, would be precisely as if it had never been^an 
idle dream, an idle tale, signifying nothing." 

These utterances of course do not settle the ques- 
tion. But, considering whence they emanate, they 
may be taken at least as an authoritative indication 
that the tenet of human immortality is congruous to, 
if it be not a necessary deduction from the demon- 
strable truths that man is the consummation of the 
great world-process by which the universe has been 
brought into being. 

In short, we believe that no name 
ijt.4JlU/r l^tOtlfiwfe. given by man will ever express the infin- 
ite secret. 
We believe that everything now existing does 
change, but cannot absolutely be destroyed. Thus 
we believe that even our sun, earth, moon will once 
be destroyed, but probably in order to begin in new 
shapes a new existence. But as to all that, we leave 
science to decide, if possible, when and how it will 
take place. 



Buddha also gave a warning to 
HBfiartnapala. his followers when he said : " He 
who is not generous, who is fond of 
sensuality, who is disturbed at heart, who is of uneven 
mind, who is not reflective, who is not of calm mind, 
who is discontented at heart, who has no control over 
his senses — such a disciple is far from me, though he 
is in body near me." 

The attainment of salvation is by the perception 
of self through charity, purity, self-sacrifice, self- 
knowledge, dauntless energy, patience, truth, resolu- 
tion, love, and equanimity. The last words of Buddha 
were these: "Be ye lamps unto yourselves; be ye a 
refuge to yourselves; betake yourselves to an eternal 
voyage; hold fast to the truth as a lamp; hold fast as 
a refuge to the truth; look not for refuge to anyone 
besides yourselves. Learn ye, then, that knowledge 
which I have attained and have declared unto you 
and walk ye in it, practice and increase in order that 
the path of holiness may last and long endure for the 
blessing of many people, to the relief of the world, 
to the welfare, the blessing, the joy of Gods and 
men. 

The domain of religion is co-extensive 
?6l^J5Cft- ^^^^ ^^^ confines of humanity. For man 
is by nature not only, as Aristotle puts the 
case, the political — he is as clearly the religious — 
creature. Religion is one of the natural functions of the 
human soul; it is one of the natural conditions of hu- 
man, as distinct from mere animal life. To this 
proposition ethnology and sociology bear abundant 



220 a itti)oru!3 of dFaitlj, 

testimony. Man alone in the wide sweep of creation 
builds altars. And wherever man may tent there also 
will curve upward the burning incense of his sacrifice 
or the sweeter savor of his aspirations after the better, 
the diviner light. However rude the form of society 
in which he moves, or however refined and complex 
the social organism, religion never fails to be among 
the determining forces one of the most potent. It, 
under all types of social architecture, will be active as 
one of the decisive influences rounding out individual 
life and lifting it into significance for and under the 
swifter and stronger current of the social relations. 
Climatic and historical accidents may and do modify 
the action of this all-pervading energy. But under 
every sky it is vital and under all temporary conjunc- 
tures it is quick. 

A man without religion is not normal. There may 
be those in whom this function approaches atrophy. 
But they are undeveloped or crippled specimens of 
the completer type. Their condition recalls that of the 
color blind or the deaf. Can they contend that their 
defect is proof of superiority? As well might those 
bereft of the sense of hearing insist that because to 
them the reception of sound is denied, the universe 
around them is a vast ocean of unbroken silence. A 
society without religion has nowhere yet been discov- 
ered. Religion may then, in very truth, be said to be 
the universal distinction of man. 



THE THOUGHT OF GOD. 



221 



One thought I have, my ample creed 

So deep it is and broad, 
And equal to my every need, — 

It is the thought of God. 

Each morn unfolds some fresh surprise, 

I feast at Life's full board ; 
And rising in my inner skies 

Shines forth the thought of God. 

At night my gladness is my prayer ; 

I drop my daily load. 
And every care is pillowed there 

Upon the thought of God. 

I ask not far before to see, 

But take in trust my road ; 
Life, death, and immortality 

Are in my thought of God. 

To this their secret strength they owed 

The martyr's path who trod ; 
The fountains of their patience flowed 

From out their thought of God. 

Be still the light upon my way. 

My pilgrim staff and rod. 
My rest by night, my strength by day, 

O blessed thought of God 1 

F. L. HOSMER. 



29^ 



THE THOUGHT OF GOD. 



Religion is the mother of all religions, C«v%&u««*3fc«i^ 
aWott. not the child. The White City is not the 
parent of architecture ; architecture is the 
parent of the White City. And the temples and the 
priests and rituals that cover this round globe of ours 
have not made religion; they have been born of the 
religion that is inherent in the soul. Religion is not 
the exceptional gift of exceptional geniuses. It is 
not what men have sometimes thought poetry or art 
or music to be, a thing that belongs to a favored few 
great men. It is the universal characteristic of 
humanity. It belongs to man as man. Religion is 
not a somewhat that has been conferred upon him by 
any supernatural act of irresistible grace, either upon 
an elect few or an elect many. Still less is it a some- 
what that has been conferred upon a few, so that the 
many, strive never so hard to conform their lives to 
the light of nature, unless aided by some supernatural 
or extraordinary acts of grace, can never attain to it. 
Religion belongs to man and is inherent in man. 

Max Miiller has defined religion — I quote from 
memory, but I believe I quote with substantial 
accuracy — as a perception of such a manifestation of 
the infinite as produces an effect upon the moral 
character and conduct of man. It is not merely the 
moral character and conduct : that is ethics. It is 

223 



224 a cri)drug Df jFaitf). 

not merely a perception of the infinite : that is the- 
ology. It is such a perception of the infinite as pro- 
duces an influence on the moral character and 
conduct of man: that is religion. 

My proposition then it this, that in every man 
there is an inherent capacity so to perceive the infinite 
and to every man on this round globe of ours God 
has so manifested himself in nature and in inward 
experience, as that, taking that manifestation on the 
one hand and a power of perception on the other, the 
moral character and the conduct of man, if he follows the 
light that he receives, will be steadily improved and 
enlarged and enriched in his upward progress to the 
infinite and the eternal. Man is conscious of himself 
and he is conscious of the world within himself. He 
is conscious of a perception that brings him in touch 
with the outer world. He is conscious of reason by 
which he sees the relation of things. He is conscious 
of emotions, feelings of hope, of fear, of love. He is 
conscious of will, of resolve, of purpose. Sometimes 
painfully conscious of resolves that have been broken. 
Sometimes gladly conscious of resolves that have been 
kept. And in all of this life he is conscious of these 
things; that he is a perceiving, thinking, feeling, 
willing creature. 

He goes but a very little way through life before 
he learns there is a larger unity of life than at first he 
thought. He learns that all phenomena of life are 
bound together in some one common bond. He 
learns that behind all the phenomena of nature there 
is a cause, that behind the apparent there is the real, 
behind the shadow there is the substance, behind the 



Ei)t 2ri)0U8i^t of ffioir. 225 

transitory there is the eternal. The old teachers of 
the old religion, the old teachers of the Japanese 
religion, they, as well as the old teachers of the 
Hebrew religion, did see that truth which Herbert 
Spencer has put in axiomatic form in these later days: 
"Midst all mysteries by which we are surrounded, 
nothing is more certain than that we are in the pres- 
ence of an infinite and eternal energy from which all 
things proceed." 

There could be no political economy if there were 
no unit in the human race, no science, no religion, no 
nothing. We are not a mere set of disintegrated, 
separate pieces of sand in one great heap which we 
are building up to be blown asunder. All humanity 
is united together by unmistakable ties — united with 
a power that far transcends the local temple, the 
temple of tribes or nations or creeds or circumstances. 
And we thus discern that, as there is back of all the 
material phenomena an ethical culture, so there is 
back of all moral phenomena moral culture. 

We do not think that God has spoken only in 
Palestine and to the few in that narrow province. 
We do not think he has been vocal in Christendom 
and dumb everywhere else. No! We believe that he 
is a speaking God in all times and in all ages. But 
we believe no other revelation transcends and none 
other equals that which he has made to man in the 
one transcendental human life that was lived eighteen 
centuries ago in Palestine. And we think we find in 
Christ one thing that we have not been able to find in 
any other of the manifestations of the religious life of 
the world. All religions are the result of man's seek- 
15 



226 a atffoxm of Jfaiti). 

ing after God. The whole human race seeks to know 
its eternal and divine Father. The message of the 
Incarnation — that is the glad tidings we have to give 
to Africa, to Asia, to China, to the isles of the sea. — 
Religion Essentially Characteristic of Humanity, 

Let us remember that if God is 
y ISj^flttnapala. omnipotent, evil is impotent. There 

^-^^■^^.♦^r is but one side of omnipotent good 

— it has no evil side; there is but one side to reality, 
and that is the good side. If God is All in All, that 
finishes the question of a good and a bad side to ex- 
istence. You will gather the importance of these say- 
ings when sorrow comes, for "sorrow endureth but for 
a night and joy cometh in the morning." The dream 
is sickness, sin, and death, and your waking from it is 
a reality, even the triumph of soul over sense. Take 
the side you wish to carry and be careful not to talk 
on both sides. Yon are the attorney for the case, 
whatever it be, and will win or lose according to your 
mental verdict. The old Latin proverb is true, " That 
thou seest, that thou beest." 

There is an atheism which is death; there is 
another which is the very life blood of all true faith. 
It is the power of giving up what, in our best, our 
most honest moments, we know to be no longer 
true. It is the readiness to replace the less perfect, 
however dear, however sacred it may have been to 
us, by the more perfect, however much it may be 
detested as yet by the world. It is the true self-sur- 
render, the true self-sacrifice, the truest trust in truth, 
the truest trust in faith. 



El9t Effou^f^t of (Snlr. 227 

Without that atheism no new religion, no reform, 
no reformation, no resuscitation would ever have been 
possible; without that atheism no new life is possible 
for anyone of us. The strongest emphasis has been 
put by Buddha on the supreme importance of having 
an unprejudiced mind before we start on the road of 
investigation of truth. The least attachment of the 
mind to preconceived ideas is a positive hindrance to 
the acceptance of truth. Prejudice, passion, fear of 
expression of one's convictions and ignorance are the 
four biases that have to be sacrificed at the threshold. 
To be born as a human being is a glorious privilege. 
Man's dignity consists in his capability to reason and 
think, and to live up to the highest ideal of pure life, 
of calm thought, of wisdom, without extraneous inter- 
ventions. Buddha says that man can enjoy in this 
life a glorious existence, a life of individual freedom, 
of fearlessness and compassionateness. This dignified 
ideal of manhood may be attained by the humblest, 
and this consummation raises him above wealth and 
royalty. " He that is compassionate and observes the 
law is my disciple." 

I care not what name you give to God/^ j- 

(flOOfe. if you mean by him a spirit omnipresent, ^1' > 

eternal, omnipotent, infinite in holiness 
and every other operation. Who is ready for 
cooperation with such a God in life and death 
and beyond death ? Only he who is thus ready 
is religious. William Shakespeare is supposed to have 
known something of human nature and certainly was 
not a theological partisan. Now, Shakespeare, you 



228 a atffoxm ot jFaitfj. 

will remember, in " The Tempest " tells you of two 
characters who conceived for each other supreme 
affection as soon as they met. ** At the first glance 
they have changed eyes," he says. The truly relig- 
ious man is one who has " changed eyes " with God 
under some one or another of His hundred names. It 
follows from this definition of religion and as a cer- 
tainty dependent on the unalterable nature of things 
that only he who has changed eves with God can look 
into his face in peace. A religion of delight in God, 
not merely as Savior, but as Lord also, is scientifi- 
cally known to be a necessity to the peace of the soul, 
whether we call God by this name or the other, whether 
we speak of Him in the dialect of this or that of the 
four continents, or this or that of the ten thousand 
isles of the sea. 

We humbly believe that the world 
^^^"^^^"'"'''^ ^ iBtfi0Stltat4 has yet to understand and realize, as it 

S rww^ « never has in the past, the tender and 

loving relationship that exists between mankind and 
their supreme, universal, divine mother. Oh, what a 
world of thought and feeling is centered in that one 
monosyllabic word ma, which in my language is in- 
dicative of the English word mother! Words cannot 
describe, hearts cannot conceive of the tender and 
self-sacrificing love of a human mother. Of all 
human relations the relation of mother to her chil- 
dren is the most sacred and elevating relation. And 
yet our frail and fickle human mother is nothing in 
comparison with the divine mother of the entire hu- 
manity, who is the primal source of all love, of all 
mercy and all purity. 



ffii)e Eijotigtt of C&oTr. 229 

Let us, therefore, realize that God is our mother, 
the mother of mankind, irrespective of the country or 
the clime in which men and women may be born. 
The deeper the realization of the motherhood of God, 
the greater will be the strength and intensity of our 
ideas of the brotherhood of man and the sisterhood 
of woman. Once we see and feel that God is our 
mother, all the intricate problems of theology, all 
the puzzling quibbles of church government, all the 
quarrels and wranglings of the so-called religious 
world will be solved and settled. We of the Brahmo- 
Somaj family hold that a vivid realization of the 
motherhood of God is the only solution of the intri- 
cate problems and differences in the religious world. 

May the universal mother grant us all her blessings 
to understand and appreciate her sweet relationship 
to the vast family of mankind. Let us approach her 
footstool in the spirit of her humble and obedient 
children. 

What we happily emphasize in this 
SCOb^lL Congress of Religions is simply religion. 
That we write out in large letters and trumpet 
the great fact of it in all the tongues of men. We be- 
lieve there must be more of it in the world when men 
come to understand how much there is of it already. 
Paul felt it as we feel it when he honestly complimented 
the news-loving Athenians upon their being very re- 
ligious. In an almost fearful fancy Heine declared 
that he would seize a towering pine tree and dip it 
brushwise in ^tna and write on the heavens, ''Agnes, 
Ich liebe dich " — "Agnes, I love thee." So would we 




rw^Avw 



blazon on the more widely read scroll of our closing 
century's quick history the word " Religion." 

The human mind, taught and trained 
i^rfcCOUS- by human thoughts and human loves, 
point us to one who is over all, above all 
and in all, in whom we live, move and have our being, 
with whom we all have to do, light of our light, life of 
our life, the grand reality that underlies all realities, 
the being that pervades all beings, the sum of all joys, 
of all glory, of all greatness; known yet unknown, 
revealed yet not revealed, far off from us yet nigh to 
us; for whom all men feel if happily they might find 
him, for whom all the wants of this wondrous nature 
of ours go out in inextinguishable longing; one with 
whom we all have to do and from whose dominion we 
can never escape. 

But utter that simple name, God, and straightway 
there comes gathering around it the clustering of 
glorious words shining and leaping out of the dark- 
ness until they blaze like a galaxy of glory in the 
heavens — law, order, justice, love, truth, immortality, 
righteousness, glory! 

In the Vedas there are marks everywhere 
119*btb(tlt. of the recognition of the idea of one God, the 
God of nature, manifesting himself in many 
forms. This word " God" is one of those which have 
been the stumbling block of philosophy. God, in the 
sense of personal creator of the universe, is not known 
in the Vedas, and in the highest effort of rationalistic 
thought in India has been to see God in the totality 



of all that is. And, indeed, it is doubtful whether 
philosophy, be it that of a Kant or a Hegel, has ever 
accomplished any thing more. 

I humbly beg to differ from those who see in mon- 
otheism, in the recognition of a personal God apart 
from nature, the acme of intellectual development. I 
believe that is only a kind of anthropomorphism 
which the human mind stumbles upon in its first 
efforts to understand the unknown. The ultimate 
satisfaction of human reason and emotion lies in the 
realization of that universal essence which is the All. 

Religion is a universal fact of human ex- 
Snfll. perience. There are people without gods, 
without sacred books, without sacraments, 
without doctrines, if you will — but none without re- 
ligion. There is in every human breast an instinct 
which reaches outward and upward toward the highest 
truth, the highest goodness, the highest beauty, and 
which testifies at the same time to the existence of an 
intimate relation of affection, of honor, and of beauty 
between each individual person and the surrounding 
universe. 

It seems to me that the discovery of ^.' ^ j 
fi^Ottittit* the fact of evolution was an important ■ ^ 

step in the proof of the divine existence. 
Evolution has not disproved adaptation; it has merely 
disproved one particular kind of adaptation — viz., 
of a human artifice. 

A different and far higher method is suggested by 
the doctrine of evolution, a doctrine which may now 



232 a atifoxm of jTaitft. 

be considered as practically demonstrated, thanks 
especially to the light which has been shed on it by 
the science of anatomy, physiology, geology, palaeon- 
tology, and embryology. These sciences have placed 
the blood relationship of species beyond a doubt. 
The embryos of existing animals are found again and 
again to bear the closest resemblance to extinct 
species, though in this adult form the resemblance is 
obscured. Moreover, we frequently find in animals 
rudimentary, or abortive, organs, which are manifestly 
not adapted to any end, which never can be of any 
use, and whose presence in the organism is sometimes 
positively injurious. There are snakes that have 
rudimentary legs — legs which however interesting to 
the anatomist are useless to the snake. There are 
rudiments of fingers in a horse's hoof and of teeth in 
a whale's mouth, and in man himself there is the 
vermiform appendix. It is manifest, therefore, that 
any particular organ in one species is merely an 
evolution from a somewhat different kind of organ in 
another. It is manifest that the species themselves 
are but transmutations of one or a few primordial 
types and tbat they have been created not by paroxysm 
but by evolution. The creator saw the end from the 
beginning. He had not many conflicting purposes, 
but one that was general and all embracing. Unity 
and continuity of design serve to demonstrate the 
wisdom of the designer. 

But over and above the signs of purpose in the 
world there are other evidences which bear witness 
to its rationality, to its ultimate dependence upon 
mind. We can often detect thought even when we 



fail to detect purpose. " Science," says Lange, " starts 
from the principle of the intelligibleness of nature." 
To interpret is to explain, and nothing can be 
explained that is not in itself rational. Reason can 
only grasp what is reasonable. You cannot explain 
the conduct of a fool. You cannot interpret the 
actions of a lunatic. They are contradictory, mean- 
ingless, unintelligible. Similarly if nature were an 
irrational system there would be no possibility of 
knowledge. The interpretation of nature consists in 
making our own the thoughts which nature implies. 
Scientific hypothesis consists in guessing at these 
thoughts; scientific verification in proving that we 
have guessed aright. "O God," says Kepler, when 
he discovered the laws of planetary motion, " O God, 
I think again Thy thoughts after Thee." 

There is no doubt something awesome in the 
thought of the absolute inviolability of law; in the 
thought that nature goes on her way quite regardless 
of your wishes or mine. She is so strong and so 
indifferent! The reign of law often entails on indi- 
viduals the direst suffering. But if the Deity inter- 
fered with it he would at once convert the universe 
into chaos. The first requisite for a rational life is 
the certain knowledge that the same effects will always 
follow from the same cause; that they will never be 
miraculously averted; that they will never be mirac- 
ulously produced. It seems hard — it is hard — that 
a mother should lose her darling child by accident or 
disease, that she cannot by any agony of prayer recall 
the child to life. But it would be harder for the 
world if she could. The child has died through a vio- 



^34 a at^oxm of dfaitf)* 

lation of some of nature's laws, and if such violation 
were unattended with death men would lose the great 
inducement to discover and obey them. It seems 
hard, it is hard, that the man who has taken poison 
by accident dies as surely as if he had taken it on pur- 
pose. But it would be harder for the world if he did 
not. If one act of carelessness were ever overlooked, 
the race would cease to feel the necessity for care. It 
seems hard, it is hard, that children are made to 
suffer for their father's crimes. But it would be 
harder for the world if they were not. If the penal- 
ties of wrong-doing were averted from the children, 
the fathers would lose the best incentive to do right. 
Vicarious suffering has a great part to play in the 
moral development of the world. Each individual is 
apt to think that an exception might be made in his 
favor. But, of course, that could not be. If the laws 
of nature were broken for one person, justice would 
require that they should be broken for thousands, for 
all. And if only one of nature's laws could be proved 
to have been only once violated our faith in law would 
be at an end; we should feel that we were living in a 
disorderly universe; we should lose the sense of the 
paramount importance of conduct; we should know 
that we were the sport of chance. 

Pain, therefore, was an unavoidable necessity in 
the creation of the best of all possible worlds. But 
however many and however great were the difficulties 
in the creator's path, the fact of evolution makes it 
certain that they are being gradually overcome. And 
among all the changes that have marked its progress, 
none is so palpable, so remarkable, so persistent, as 



the development of goodness. Evolution " makes 
for righteousness." That which seems to be its end 
varies. 

The truth is constantly becoming more apparent 
that on the whole and in the long run it is not well 
with the wicked; that sooner or later, both in the 
lives of individuals and of nations, good triumphs 
over evil. And this tendency toward righteousness 
by which we find ourselves encompassed meets with a 
ready, an ever readier response in our own hearts. 
We cannot help respecting goodness, and we have 
inextinguishable longings for its personal attainment. 
Notwithstanding "sore lets and hindrances," not- 
withstanding the fiercest temptations, notwithstanding 
the most disastrous failures, these yearnings contin- 
ually re-assert themselves with ever-increasing force. 
We feel, we know that we shall always be dissatisfied 
and unhappy until the tendency within us is brought 
into perfect unison with the tendency without us, 
until we also make for righteousness steadily, unre- 
mittingly, and with our whole heart. What is this 
disquietude, what are these yearnings, but the spirit 
of the universe in communion with our spirits, inspir- 
ing us, impelling us, all but forcing us to become co- 
workers with itself. 

To sum up in one sentence: all knowledge, 
whether practical or scientific, nay, the commonest 
experience of everyday life, implies the existence of a 
mind which is omnipresent and eternal, while the 
tendency towards righteousness, which is so unmis- 
takably manifest in the course of history, together 
with the response which this tendency awakens in our 



^^ 



236 a <tti)oru!5 of 4Faitl). 

own hearts, combine to prove that the infinite thinker 
is just and kind and good. It must be because he is 
always with us that we sometimes imagine that he is 
nowhere to be found. 

* " Oh, where is the sea? " the fishes cried 

As they swam the crystal clearness through; 

"We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide 
And we long to look on the waters blue. 

The wise ones speak of an infinite sea; 
Oh, who can tell us if such there be? " 

The lark flew up in the morning bright 
And sang and balanced on sunny wings, 

And this was its song: "I see the light; 
I look on a world of beautiful things; 

And flying and singing everywhere 
In vain have I sought to find the air." 

— Evidences of a Supreme Being. 

In the presence of a multitude of 
©rOOlJSP^fTl, religions, such as are represented in 
this Parliament, we are tempted to be- 
lieve that the ultimate religion will consist in a bouquet 
of the sweetest and choicest of them all. The graves 
of the dead religions declare that not selection but 
incorporation makes a religion strong; not incorpora- 
tion but reconciliation; not reconciliation but the ful- 
fillment of all these aspirations, these partial truths in 
a higher thought, in a transcendent life. 

The system of religions here represented, or to 
come, which will not merely select but incorporate, 
not merely incorporate but reconcile, not merely 
reconcile but fulfill, holds the religious future of hu- 
manity. 

♦The author of these very suggestive and oft-quoted lines is Minot J. Sav- 
age, Boston. — Editor. 



5rf)e Ci)Ougii)t nf ©oir. 237 

Apart from particular problems these dead relig- 
ions, in clear tones, give two precious testimonies. 
They bear witness to man's need of God, and man's 
capacity to know Him. Looking back to-day upon the 
dead past, we behold men in the jungle and on the 
mountain, in the Roman temple and before the Celtic 
altar, lifting up holy hands of aspiration and petition 
to the Divine. Sounding through Greek hymns and 
Babylonian psalms alike are heard human voices cry- 
ing out after the eternal. 

But there is a nobler heritage of ours in these oldest 
of religions. The capacity to know God is not the 
knowledge of him. They tell us with one voice that 
the human heart, the universal human heart that needs 
God and can know him, was not left to search for him 
in blindness and ignorance. He gave them of him- 
self. They received the light which lighteth every 
man. That light has come down the ages unto us, 
shining as it comes with ever brighter beams of divine 
revelation. 

"For God who, at sundry times and in divers man- 
ners, spake unto the fathers" — and we are beginning 
to realize to-day, as never before, how many are our 
spiritual fathers in the past — "hath in these last days 
spoken unto us in the son." — What the Dead Religions 
have Bequeathed to the Living. 

The term natural science may be held 

29ah)0O1l* to include our arranged and systematized 

knowledge of the earth and its living 

inhabitants. It will thus comprise, not only geology 

and the biological sciences, but anthropology and 



238 ai Oti^drujs of jFait]^. 

psychology. On the other hand one may take religion 
in its widest sense as covering the belief common to 
all the more important faiths and more especially 
those general ideas which belong to all the races of 
men and are usually included under the term natural 
religion, though this, as we shall see, graduates imper- 
ceptibly into that which is revealed. Natural religion, 
if thereby we understand the beliefs fairly deducible 
from the facts of nature, is in truth closely allied to 
natural science, and if reduced to a system may even 
be considered as a part of it. 

The attitude of science to Divine revelation is not 
one of antagonism except in so far as any professed 
revelation is contradictory to natural facts and laws. 
This is a question on which I do not propose to enter, 
but may state my convictions, that the Old and New 
Testaments of the Christian faith, while true to nature 
in their reference to it, infinitely transcend its teach- 
ings in their sublime revelations respecting God and 
His purposes toward man. 

Finally, we have thus seen that natural science is 
hostile to the old materialistic worship of natural 
objects, as well as to the worship of heroes, of 
humanity generally, and of the state, or indeed of any- 
thing short of the great first cause of all. It is also 
hostile to that agnosticism which professes to be unable 
to recognize a first cause and to the pantheism which 
confounds the primary cause with the cosmos result- 
ing from his action. On the contrary it has nothing 
to say against the belief in a Divine First Cause, 
against Divine miracles or inspiration, against the 
idea of a future life, or against any moral or spiritual 



5ri)e 5ri)t)ugi)t of (Soir. 239 

means for restoring man to harmony with God and 
nature. As a consequence it will be found that a 
large proportion of the more distinguished scientific 
men have been good and pious in their lives, and 
friends of religion. — The Religion of Science. 

The ideas of man and God are correla- C\jJL^Aj^ 
i3gtU0. tive and inseparable — they come and go 
together, and a defective knowledge of the 
one necessarily implies an imperfect understanding 
of the other. The power of apprehending and 
understanding the relations between cause and effect, 
of adapting and adjusting means to an end is, if not 
the very definition of intelligence and free will, at 
least their adequate description. And in this man is 
like unto God, whose presence, shut out from us by 
the veil of the visible universe, is luminously revealed 
in the laws by which that universe is governed, and 
in the order and beauty which bring the operation of 
these laws within the domain of sense and through 
sense to the intelligence of man. Such, according to 
the Catholic idea, is the nobility, such the dignity and 
preeminence of man. He is set as a king over the 
created things of earth, yet responsible for the 
use of them to the God who gave him so royal a 
supremacy. 

Man will be religious. It is a necessity and the 
law of his being, and if he cannot rise to God, he will 
strive to draw down God to himself. "Lord, teach 
me to know myself, teach me to know Thee," was the 
the prayer that went up from the soul of the great 
bishop of Hippo ; and the prayer to which he gave 



n 






240 a (ttf)orug df jFaitf)» 

utterance has ever been the universal cry of the heart 
of man — to know one's self, to know God. 

The world is a manifestation of divine 
J^EtttJS. grace — a spectacle of the evolution or 
becoming of individual existence in all 
phases, inorganic and organic. Individuality begins 
to appear even in specific gravity and in ascending 
degrees in cohesion and crystallization. In the plant 
it is unmistakable. In the animal it begins to feel 
and perceive itself. In man it arrives at self-con- 
sciousness and moral action and recognizes its own 
place in the universe. 

God, being without envy, does not grudge any 
good ; he accordingly turns, as Rothe says, the 
emptiness of non-being into a reflection of himself, 
and makes it everywhere a spectacle of his grace. 

The vastness of the universe represents 
J^ttOttt* God's immensity. The multifarious beau- 
ties of creatures represent his splendor 
and glory as their archetype. The marks of design 
and the harmonious order which are visible in the 
world manifest his intelligence. The faculties of in- 
telligence and will in rational creatures show forth in 
a more perfect image the attributes of intellect and 
will in their author and original source. All created 
goodness, whether physical or moral, proclaims the 
essential excellence and sanctity of God. He is the 
source of life, and is, therefore, the living God. All 
the active forces of nature witness to his power. 



The devout Mussulman, one who has JJjua^^^»^-^^'*^>^ 
^ISSett. arrived at an intelligent comprehension of 

the true teachings of the Prophet, lives in ^ 

his religion and makes it the paramount principle 
of his existence. It is with him in all his goings 
and comings during the day, and he is never so 
completely occupied with his business or worldly 
affairs that he cannot turn his back upon them when 
the stated hour of prayer arrives and present his soul 
to God. His love, his sorrows, his hopes, his fears 
are all immersed in it — it is his last thought when he 
lies down to sleep at night, and the first to enter his 
mind at dawn, when the voice of the Muezzin sings 
out loudly and clearly from the minaret of the mosque, 
waking the soft echoes of the morn with its thrilling, 
solemn, majestic monotones, "Come to prayer; prayer 
is better than sleep." 



12 



THE CROWNING DAY THAT'S 
COMING. 



»3 



I know there shall dawn a day 

— Is it here on homely earth? 
Is it yonder, worlds away, 

Where the strange and new have birth, 
That Power comes full in play? 

Then life is — to wake not sleep, 

Rise and not rest, but press 
From earth's level where blindly creep 

Things perfected, more or less. 
To the heaven's height, far and steep. 

Where, amid what strifes and storms 

May wait the adventurous quest. 
Power is Love — transports, transforms 

Who aspired from worst to best. 
Sought the soul's world, spurned the worms'. 

I have faith such end shall be : 

From the first. Power was — I knew. 

Life has made clear to me 

That, strive but for closer view. 

Love were as plain to see. 

When see? When there dawns a day. 

If not on the homely earth, 
Then yonder, worlds away. 

Where the strange and new have birth, 
And power comes full in play. 

Robert Browning. 



244 



THE CROWNING DAY THAT'S COMING. 



The universal religion has as yet not ^Te^^ 
l^tt^rt* been evolved in the procession of the \j 

suns. It is one of the blessings yet to 
come. There are now even known to men and 
revered by them, great religious systems which pre- 
tend to universality. And who would deny that 
Buddhism, Christianity, and the faith of Islam present 
many of the characteristic elements of the universal 
faith? In its ideas and ideals the religion of the 
prophets, notably as enlarged by those of the Baby- 
lonian exile, also deserves to be numbered among the 
proclamations of a wider outlook and a higher up- 
look. These systems are no longer ethnic. Thus, 
the three in full practice and the last mentioned 
spirited intention, have passed beyond some of the 
most notable limitations which are fundamental in 
other forms created by the religious needs of man. 

Race and nationality cannot circumscribe the fel- 
lowship of the larger communion of the faithful, a 
communion destined to embrace in one covenant all 
the children of man. 

Race is accidental, not essential in manhood. 
Color is indeed only skin deep. No caste or tribe, 
even were we to concede the absolute purity of the 
blood flowing in their arteries, an assumption which 
could in no case be verified by the actual facts of the 

245 



246 a (tti^nrug of dFaitij. 

case, can lay claim to superior sanctity. None is 
nearer the heart of God than another. He certainly 
who takes his survey of humanity from the outlook 
of religion, and, from this point of view, remembers 
the serious possibilities and the sacred obligations of 
human life, cannot adopt the theory that spirit is the 
exponent of animal nature. Yet such would be the 
conclusion if the doctrine of chosen races and tribes 
is at all to be urged. The racial element is merely 
the animal substratum of our being. Brain and blood 
may be crutches which the mind must use. But mind 
is always more than the brain with which it works; 
and the soul's equation cannot be solved in terms of 
the blood corpuscles, or the pigment of the skin, or 
the shape of the nose, or the curl of the hair. 

The day of national religions is past. The God of 
the universe speaks to all mankind. He is not the 
God of Israel alone, not that of Moab, of Egypt, 
Greece or America. He is not domiciled in Pales- 
tine. The Jordan and the Ganges, the Tiber and the 
Euphrates, hold water wherewith the devout may be 
baptized unto his service and redemption. 

The church universal must have the pentecostal 
gift of the many flaming tongues in it, as the rabbis 
say was the case at Sinai. God's revelation must be 
sounded in every language to every land. But, and 
this is essential as marking a new advance, the univer- 
sal religion for all the children of Adam will not 
palisade its courts by the pointed and forbidden 
stakes of a creed. Creeds, in time to come, will be 
recognized to be indeed cruel barbed-wire fences, 
wounding those that would stray to broader pastures, 



Sije atrotonmg Hag. ^47 

and hurting others who would come in. Will it for 
this be a Godless church? Ah, no; it will have much 
more of God than the churches and synagogues, with 
their dogmatic definitions, now possess. Coming 
man will not be ready to resign the crown of his glory, 
which is his by virtue of his feeling himself to be the 
son of God. He will not exchange the church's creed 
for that still more presumptuous and deadening one 
of materialism, which would ask his acceptance of the 
hopeless perversion that the World which sweeps by 
us, in such sublime harmony and order, is not cosmos 
but chaos — is the fortuitous outcome of the chance 
play of atoms, producing consciousness by the inter- 
action of their own unconsciousness. Man will not 
extinguish the light of his own higher life by shutting 
his eyes to the telling indications of purpose in his- 
tory, a purpose which, when revealed to him in the 
outcome of his own career, he may well find reflected, 
also, in the inter-related life of nature. But, for all 
this, man will learn a new modesty, now woefully 
lacking to so many who honestly deem themselves re- 
ligious. His God will not be a figment, cold and 
distant, of metaphysics, nor a distorted caricature of 
embittered theology. " Can man by searching find 
out God?" asks the old Hebrew poet. And the ages, 
so flooded with religious strife, are vocal with the 
stinging rebuke to all creed-builders that man cannot. 
Man grows unto the knowledge of God, but not to 
him is vouchsafed that fulness of knowledge, which 
would warrant his arrogance to hold that his blurred 
vision is the full light, and that there can be none 
other which might report truth as does his. 



248 a ((tifoxm ot jFaitf), 

But, what then about sin ? Sin, as a theological 
imputation, will, perhaps, drop out of the vocabulary 
of this larger communion of the righteous. But, as a 
weakness to be overcome, an imperfection to be laid 
aside, man will be as potently reminded of his natural 
shortcomings, as he is now, of that of his first pro- 
genitor, over whose conduct he certainly had no con- 
trol, and for whose misdeed he should not be held 
accountable. Religion, will then, as now, lift man 
above his weaknesses, by reminding- him of his 
responsibilities. The goal before is Paradise. Eden 
is to rise. It has not yet been. And the life of the 
great, and good, and saintly, who went about doing 
good in their generations, and, who died, that others 
might live, will, for very truth, be pointed out as the 
spring from which have flowed the waters of salvation, 
by whose magic efficacy all men may be washed clean, 
of their infirmities, if baptized in the Spirit which was 
living within these God-appointed redeemers. 

This religion will, indeed, be for man to lead him 
to God. Its sacramental word will be duty. Labor 
is not the curse, but the blessing, of human life. For 
as man was made in the image of the creator, it is his 
to create. 

Sympathy and resignation are, indeed, beautiful 
flowers growing in the garden of many a tender and 
noble human heart. But it is active love, and energy, 
which alone can push on the chariot of human 
progress, and progress is the gradual realization of 
the divine spirit, which is incarnate in every human 
being. This principle will assign to religion, once 
more, the place of honor among the redeeming 



Jlije (Jtrotoning Bag, 249 

agencies of society, from the bondage of selfishness. 
On this basis, every man is every other man's brother, 
not merely in misery, but in active work. "As you 
have done to the least of these, you have unto me," 
will be the guiding principle of human conduct in all 
the relations into which human life enters. No more 
than Cain's enormous excuse, a scathing accusation 
of himself, "Am I my brother's keeper?" will be 
tolerated longer, or condoned, the double standard 
of morality; — one for Sunday and the church, and 
another diametrically opposed for weekdays and the 
counting-room. Not, as now, will be heard the cynic 
instance that " business is business," and has, as 
business, no connection with the decalogue, or the 
sermon on the mount. Religion will, as it did in 
Jesus, penetrate into all the relations of human society. 
Not then, will men be rated as so many hands to be 
bought at the lowest possible price, in accordance with 
a deified law of supply and demand, which cannot 
stop to consider such sentimentalities, as the fact, that 
these hands stand for soul and hearts. 

An invidious distinction obtains now between 
secular and sacred. 

It will be wiped away. Every thought and every 
deed of man must be holy, or it is unworthy of men. 
Did Jesus merely regard the temple as holy? Did 
Buddha merely have religion on one or two hours of 
the Sabbath? Did not an earlier prophet deride and 
condemn all ritual religion? "Wash ye, make ye 
clean." Was this not the burden of Isaiah's religion? 
The religion universal will be true to these, its fore- 
runners. 



250 a (t^oxu^ Of dFaitib* 

But what about death, and hereafter? This relig- 
ion will not dim the hope, which has been man's since 
the first day of his stay on earth. But it will be most 
emphatic, in winning men to the conviction, that a 
life, worthily spent here on earth, is the best, is the 
only preparation for heaven. Said the old rabbis: 
" One hour spent here in truly good works, and in the 
true intimacy with God, is more precious than all life 
to be." The egotism, which now mars so often the 
aspirations of our souls, the scramble for glory, which 
comes while we forget duty, will be replaced by a 
serene trust in the eternal justice of Him, "in whom 
we live and move and have our being." To have 
done religiously, will be a reward sweeter than which 
none can be offered. Yea, the religion of the future 
will be impatient of men who claim that they have 
the right to be saved, while they are perfectly content 
that others shall not be saved, and while not stirring 
a foot, nor lifting a hand, to redeem brother men from 
hunger and wretchedness, in the cool assurance that 
this life is destined, or doomed, to be a free race of 
haggling, snarling competitors in which, by some 
mysterious will of providence, the devil takes the hind- 
most. 

Will there be prayer in the universal religion? 
Man will worship, but, in the beauty of holiness, his 
his prayer will be the prelude to his prayerful action. 
Silence is more reverential and worshipful than a wild 
torrent of words breathing forth, not adoration, but 
greedy requests for favors to self. Can an unforgiv- 
ing heart pray, "Forgive as we forgive?" Can one 
ask for daily bread, when he refuses to break his bread 



with the hungry? Did not the prayer of the great 
master of Nazareth thus teach all men, and all ages, 
that prayer must be the stirring to love? 

Had not that little waif caught the inspiration of 
our universal prayer who, when first taught its sub- 
lime phrases, persisted in changing the opening 
words to "Your father which is in heaven?" Re- 
buked, time and again, by the teacher, he finally broke 
out. " Well, if it is our father, why, I am your 
brother." Yea, the gates of prayer, in the church to 
rise, will lead to the recognition of the universal 
brotherhood of men. 

Will this new faith have its Bible? It will. It 
retains the old Bibles of mankind, but gives them a 
new luster, by remembering, that, " the letter killeth, 
but the spirit giveth life." Religion is not a question 
of literature, but of life. God's revelation is con- 
tinuous, not contained in tablets of stone, or sacred 
parchment. He speaks to-day yet, to those that would 
hear him. A book is inspired when it inspires. 
Religion made the Bible, not the book religion. 

And what will be the name of this church? It 
will be known, not by its founders, but by its fruits. 
God replies to him who insists upon knowing his 
name: "I am he who I am." The church will be. 
If any name it will have, it will be " the church of 
God," because it will be the church of man. 

When Jacob, so runs an old rabbinical legend, 
weary and footsore the first night of his sojourn away 
from home, would lay him down to sleep under the 
canopy of the starset skies, all the stones of the 
field exclaimed: "Take me for thy pillow." And 



^(n'vv^ / 



252 a atf)(irug of jFaitij. 

because all were ready to serve him, all were mirac- 
ulously turned into one stone. This became Beth El, 
the gate of heaven. So will all religions, because 
eager to become the pillow of man, dreaming of God, 
and beholding the ladder joining earth to heaven, be 
transformed into one great rock, which the ages can- 
not move, a foundation stone for the all-embracing 
temple of humanity, united to do God's will with one 
accord. — Elements of Universal Religion. 

What is theology without moral- 
i$lO^OOtntat. ity? What is the inspiration of this 
yr^X.'^o^^ book, or the authority of that 

prophet, without personal holiness — the cleanliness of 
this God-made temple, and the cleanliness of the 
deeper temple within? 

I am often afraid, I confess, when I contemplate 
the condition of European and American society, 
when your activities are so manifold, your work is so 
extensive that you are drowned in it, and you have 
little time to consider the great questions of regenera- 
tion, of personal sanctification, of trial and judgment, 
and of acceptance before God. That is the question 
of all questions. A right theological basis may lead 
to social reform, but a right line of public activity, 
and the doing of good, is bound to lead to the salva- 
tion of the doer's soul, and the regeneration of public 
men. 

Devotions, repentance, prayer, praise, faith; throw- 
ing ourselves entirely and absolutely upon the spirit 
of God and upon his saving love. Moral aspirations 
do not mean holiness; a desire of being good does 



Eiit drotonittg Bag, 253 

not mean to be good. The bullock, that carries on his 
back hundred-weights of sugar, does not taste a grain 
of sweetness because of its unbearable load. And all 
our aspirations, and all our fine wishes, and all our 
fine dreams, and fine sermons, either hearing or speak- 
ing them, going to sleep over them or listening to 
them intently — these will never make a life perfect. 
Devotion only, prayer, direct perception of God's 
spirit, communion with him, absolute self-abasement 
before his majesty; devotional fervor, devotional ex- 
citement, spiritual absorption, living and moving in 
God — that is the secret of personal holiness. 

Theology is good; moral resolutions are good; de- 
votional fervor is good. The problem is, how shall 
we go on ever and ever in an onward way, in the 
upper path of progress and approach toward divine 
perfection? God is infinite; what limit is there in his 
goodness, or his wisdom, or his righteousness? All 
the scriptures sing His glory; all the prophets in the 
Heaven declare his majesty; all the martyrs have red- 
dened the world with their blood, in order that his 
Holiness might be known. God is the one infinite 
good; and, after we had made our three attempts of 
theological, moral, and spiritual principle, the question 
came that God is the one eternal and infinite, the in- 
spirer of all human kind. The part of our progress 
then lay toward allying ourselves, toward affiliating 
ourselves with the faith, and the righteousness, and 
wisdom of all religions and all mankind. 

Christianity declares the glory of God; Hinduism 
speaks about his infinite and eternal excellence; 
Mohammedanism, with fire and sword, proves the 



254 a atiioxm nf jFaiti). 

almightiness of his will; Buddhism says how joyful 
and peaceful he is. He is the God of all religions, of 
all denominations, of all lands, of all scriptures; and 
our progress lay in harmonizing these various sys- 
tems; these various prophecies and developments, into 
one great system. Hence the new system of religion 
in the Brahmo-Somaj is called the New Dispensation. 
The Christian speaks in terms of admiration of Chris- 
tianity; so does the Hebrew of Judaism; so does the 
Mohammedan of the Koran; so does the Zoroastrian 
of the Zend-Avesta. The Christian admires his prin- 
ciples of spiritual culture; the Hindu does the same; 
the Mohammedan does the same. — Concerning the 
Brahmo-Somaj. 

^Y^^i^ The world's religious debt to Amer- 

^Viv/vv*wN 5l2E00lUg. ica is defined in one word, opportunity. 

The liberty men had known only as a 
distant ideal now reached the stage of practical experi- 
ment. It is true, if we try to estimate this debt in 
less abstract terms, we shall find we have made a spe- 
cial contribution of no mean degree in both men and 
ideas. We have had our theologians of national and 
world-wide fame, men of the highest learning their 
age afforded, of consecrated lives and broad under- 
standing. 

We hear a great deal in the present day about an 
''ethical religion, " an "ethical basis in religion," the 
" ethical element in religion," phrases that well define 
the main modern tendency in the evolution of a new 
religious ideal. But this ethical element in religion, 
like the principle of mental freedom to which it is 



allied, is less an absolute and new discovery of our 
own age and country, than a re-statement of a truth 
long understood. We find struggling witness of one 
of the other far back in the earliest period of human 
history, and at every one of those historic points at 
which we note a fresh affirmation of the principle of 
freedom, we find new and stronger emphasis laid 
upon the moral import of things. Hand in hand 
those two ideals of heavenly birth, freedom, and good- 
ness, have led the steps of man down the tortuous 
path of theological experiment and trial, out under 
the blue open of a pure and natural religion. Nat- 
ural religion! Where upon all the green expanse of 
this, our earth, under the wide dome of sky, that 
hangs protectingly over every part of it, can so 
fitting a place for the practical demonstration of such 
a religion be found as now and here in our loved and 
free America? This is not said in reproach or criti- 
cism of any other land, but in just command and 
exhortation to ourselves. Where, except under re- 
publican rule, can the experiment so well be tried of 
a personal religion, based on no authority but that 
of the truth, finding its sanction in the human heart, 
demonstrating itself in deeds of practical helpful- 
ness and good will? 

How sadly will our boasted republic fail in its 
ideal if it realizes not in the near future this republic 
of mind. The principle of democracy, once ac- 
cepted, runs in all directions. Religion is fast 
becoming democratized in these days. If America is 
to present the world with a new type of faith, it must 
be as inclusive as those principles of human brother- 



256 a (tijoxm oi jFaiti). 

hood on which her political institutions rest, and 
embody a great deal of Yankee common-sense. Its 
sources of supply will be as various as the needs and 
activities of the race. If Ralph Waldo Emerson is 
to be named one of its prophets, Thomas Edison 
must be counted another. 

But such a faith when evolved, even as we see it 
evolving to-day, will not be the product of one age 
or people, nor is it a result the future alone is to 
attain. Its roots will .search ever deeper into the 
past, not in timorous enslavement, but for true nour- 
ishment, as its branches will stretch toward skies of 
growing beauty and emprise. Alike Pagan and Chris- 
tian in source, it will be more than either Pagan or 
Christian in result, for a faith to be universally applied 
must be universally derived. 

From the heart of man to the heart of man it 
speaketh. It is this natural religion, springing from 
one human need and aspiration, which binds our 
hearts together here to-day, and will never let them be 
wholly loosed from each other again. How pale 
grows the phantom of a partial religion, the religion 
of intellectual assent, before the large, sweet, and 
comprehensive spirit, that has ruled in these halls! 
How strong and beautiful the disclosing figure of that 
coming faith, that owns but two motives, love of God, 
and love to man! 

" We need not travel all round the world to know 
that everywhere the sky is blue," said Goethe. We 
need not be Buddhists, Parsis, Mohammedans, Jews, 
and Christians in turn and all the little Christians 
besides, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians and Uni- 



€i)e (jtrotoning Bag. 257 

tarians, to know that, in each and all, God is choosing 
his own best way to demonstrate himself to the hearts 
of his children. Knowledge gaining slow upon ignor- 
ance, truth upon error, goodness steadily gaining power 
to heal the world's wickedness and misery, man over- 
coming himself, growing daily in the Divine likeness, 
not into which he was born, but which he was born to 
attain; thus, the soul proceeds wherever found, by the 
Indus or the Nile, the shores of the Mediterranean, or 
in the valley of the Mississippi, whether it prays in the 
name of Jesus, or of Osirus, wears black or yellow vest- 
ments. 

" The World's Religious Debt to America!" Meas- 
ure as large in actual accomplishment or future possi- 
bility and desire as our fondest fancy or most patriotic 
wish can fashion it, there is a debt larger than this, 
one which will grow larger still with time, which we 
acknowledge with glad and grateful hearts to-day, 
and can never discharge, and that is America's relig- 
ious debt to the world. 

The tendency of enlightened ^ 
UBi^atmapala. thought of the day, all the world Z^^^/^^^^*'^ 

over, is not toward theology, but 
philosophy and psychology. The bark of theological 
dualism is drifting into danger. The fundamental 
principles of evolution and monism are being accepted 
by the thoughtful. The crude conceptions of anthro- 
pomorphic deism are being relegated into the limbo 
of oblivion. Lip service of prayer is giving place to 
a life of altruism. Personal self-sacrifice is gaining 
the place of a vicarious sacrifice. History is repeat- 
17 



258 a (ffiljorug of dFaiti)* 

ing itself. Twenty-five centuries ago India witnessed 
an intellectual and religious revolution which culmin- 
ated in the overthrow of monotheism and priestly self- 
ishness, and the establishment of a synthetic religion. 
This was accomplished through Sakya Muni. To-day 
the Christian world is going through the same process. 

^Vwy«« Only men of moral mental force, of 

' ^.^^^^^n^^^^^ USEdliaittlS. a patriotic regard for the relationship 

of the two races, can be of real service 
as ministers in the South. Less theology and more of 
human brotherhood, less declamation and more com- 
mon-sense and love for truth, must be the qualifica- 
tions of the new ministry that shall yet save the race 
from the evils of false teachings. With this new and 
better ministry, will come the reign of that religion, 
which ministers to the heart and gives to all our soul 
functions an impulse to righteousness. The tendency 
of creeds and doctrine to obscure religion, to make 
complex that which is elemental and simple, to sug- 
gest partisanship and doubt in that which is universal 
and certain, has seriously hindered the moral progress 
of the colored people of this country. 

Religion should not leave these people alone to 
learn from birds and beasts, those blessed meanings 
of marriage, motherhood, and family. Religion should 
not utter itself, only once or twice a week through a 
minister from a pulpit, but should open every cabin 
door and get immediate contact with those who have 
not yet learned to translate into terms of conduct, the 
promptings of religion. 

How ardently do we all hope, that the heart of 



JTlje (KrotoniuB Bag. 259 

American womanhood will yet be aroused and touched 
by this opportunity, to elevate and broaden the home- 
life of these unfortunate women in black. It ought 
never to be said, that a whole race of teachable women 
are permitted to grope their way unassisted toward a 
realization of those domestic virtues, moral impulses, 
and standards of family and social life, that alone are 
badges to responsibility. There needs no evidence 
to show, that these unfortunate people are readily 
susceptible to these higher and purifying influences 
of religion. Come from what source they may, Jew 
or Gentile, Protestant or Catholic, or from those who 
profess no religion, but who, indeed, are often the most 
religious, the colored people are eager to learn, and 
know those lessons, that make men and women mor- 
ally strong and responsible. 

The hope of the Negro and other dark races in 
America depends upon how far the white Christians 
can assimilate their own religion. At present there 
seems to be no ethical attitude in public opinion 
toward our colored citizens. White men and women, 
are careless and meanly indifferent about the merits 
and rights of colored men and women. The white 
man who swears, and the white man who prays, are 
alike contemptuous about the claims of colored men. 

In every profession, in every trade and occupation 
of men, there is a code of ethics that governs the 
relationship, and fosters the spirit of fraternity, 
among its members. This is the religious sense of 
the people, applied to the details of practical life. 
Yet even these religious promptings to deal rightly, 
too often stop short of reaching the man or woman 



26o a ffiijorusi of jFaitlj. 

who happens to be black. What we need is such a 
reenforcement of the gentle power of religion, that 
all souls, of whatever color, shall be included within 
the blessed circle of its influence. The American 
negro, in his meager environments, needs the moral 
helpfulness and contact of men and women, whose 
lives are larger, sweeter and stronger than his. It 
should be the mission of religion to give him this 
help. — W/ia^ can Religion further do to Advance the 
Condition of the American Negro? 

Religion's duty is to teach the rich, 
CllUatp* the responsibilities of wealth, and the poor, 
respect for order and law. The security 
of capital against the discontent and envy of labor, is 
the best security also for the workingman. When 
capital becomes timid, and shrinks from the hazard of 
investment, labor soon feels the pangs of hunger, and 
the dread specter of want casts its dismal shadow over 
many an humble home. 

Religion is the only influence that has been able to 
subdue the pride and the passions of men, to refine 
the manners and guide the conduct of human society, 
so that rich and poor alike, mindful of their common 
destiny, respect each other's rights, their mutual 
dependence and the rights of their common Father 
in Heaven. The religious teachers and guides 
who apply the principles of the " Sermon on the 
Mount" to the everyday affairs of men, and lead 
humanity upward to a better and nobler realization of 
God's compassion for the weary ones of earth, will 
merit the undying gratitude of men and Heaven's 
choicest rewards. 



Let capital and labor come nearer together, and, 
in close contact with their common humanity, honestly 
and intelligently harmonize all their differences on a 
basis of justice to all. The interest of labor in the 
security of capital, is equal only to the concern of 
labor for its own prosperity. Contented, prosperous 
labor is capital's most secure safeguard. The rich and 
poor have a common destiny and common hope ; both 
are hastening onward through a " valley of tears " to 
appear before a common Father who, in tender love, 
will show justice and mercy to all his children. 

The relation of Buddhism, Christianity, 
l^ttaf* Confucianism, Shintoism, and all the other 
religions of the world and their believers, is 
like that of many lines of different railroads and their 
passengers. Each starts from a different point and 
direction, passing through different country scenes, 
but the final destiny is the one and the same world's 
fair, which will also be differently viewed by the men- 
tal situation of the visitors. Do not dispute about the 
distinctions of the different lines of railroad. The 
world's fair is not in the trains and cars, but it is in 
Chicago, right before you. You are in the fair. Stop 
your debate about the difference of religion. Kill 
Gautama — he is only a conductor of the train; burn 
his scripture — truth is not in it, but right before you. 
You are in truth. Do not mind Christ — he is only 
a brakeman. Tear up the bible — God is not in it, 
but right before you. You are in God. 

This synthesis of all faiths is no more a vain hope. 
If it were ever so thought, it is now known that this 



2^2 ^ at|)dru^ df jFaiti^. 

apparent dream was not Utopian, but a mirage re- 
fracted from a remote reality. Could I but have for 
a few moments the clairvoyant vision of the seer, and 
peer into the deep and subtle minds of the great men 
and women who are here assembled, I should discover 
one aim and one object common to them all — the 
desire in love to help, and teach the others; but I 
should also find a mental conception and hope in 
regard to this Parliament, as different in each mind as 
the faces of these members vary from one another. 

It is the dream of the Christian representatives, 
that in assembling together these great men from 
China, from India, from Europe, from South Amer- 
ica, from Japan, and the islands of the sea, they will, 
for the first time, behold with understanding the 
bloody cross of Christ, and will enroll under the ban- 
ner of the humble Nazarene, and the Christian repre- 
sentative is right; but there is something more. 

It was the dream of the Buddhist, that the clear 
and pure enlightenment of Gautama, might be ex- 
plained and comprehended by the student of the West, 
and the Buddhist representative is right; but there is 
something more. 

It was the dream of the representative from the 
land of the star and crescent, and all those Moslems 
who pray to Allah with their faces toward Mecca, that 
some recognition should be held out to them as a 
powerful and aggressive faith, which has earned its 
right of place among the accepted religions of the 
world, and the representative of Mohammed is right; 
but there is something more. 

The clean Parsi, purified by fire, standing almost 



Ei)t drotoumg Bag. 263 

alone to-day under the untarnished flag of Zoroaster, 
still hopes and dreams of a revival of his faith by the 
influence of this Parliament of Religions, and he is 
right; but there is something more. 

Members of this great assembly, there is a surprise 
awaiting you. The lamb and the lion shall lie down 
together. Looking more intently, some of us behold 
a strange thing, the paradox, the anomaly, the 
Christian a Buddhist and the Buddhist a Christian; 
the Moslem a Parsi and the Parsi a Moslem. The 
grand, far-reaching result to grow out of this parlia- 
ment, is not what you conceive, but, as I said before, 
a surprise awaits you. Out of it shall come a pure 
being — unfettered, naked, white, with eyes like Christ, 
and dignity like Buddha, bearing the rewards of 
Zoroaster and the flaming sword of Moslem. To her 
the Jew bows his head, the Christian kneels, the Brah- 
min prays; before her the habiliments of sects and 
creeds fall off, for she is pure and naked — she is the 
one truth, resurrected from the mingled heart and in- 
terchanged mind of the world's great Parliament of 
Religions. — Synthetic Religion. 

Life with God for man in heaven — that is 
J^al^. the religion on which the light of the 
twentieth century is to be formed. The 
twentieth century, for instance, is going to establish 
peace among all the nations of the world. Instead 
of these arbitration boards, such as we have now 
occasionally, we are going to have a permanent tri- 
bunal, always in session, to discuss and settle the 
grievances of the nations of the world. The estab- 



ti<Mu*w f&^fV4,«l4, 



264 a itti)orus of jFaWj* 

lishment of this permanent tribunal is one of the 
illustrations of life with God, for men in a present 
heaven. Education is to be universal. That does 
not mean that every boy and girl in the United States 
is to be taught how to read very badly and how to 
write very badly. We are not going to be satisfied with 
any such thing as that. It means that every man and 
woman in the United States shall be able to study 
wisely, and well, all the works of God, and shall work, 
side by side, with those who go the farthest, and study 
the deepest. Universal education will be best for 
everyone — that is what is coming. That is life with 
God, for man in heaven. 

And the twentieth century is going to care for 
everybody's health ; going to see that the condi- 
tions of health are such, that the child, born in the 
midst of the most crowded parts of the most crowded 
cities, has the same exquisite delicacy of care as the 
babe born to some President of the United States in 
the White House. We shall take that care of the 
health of every man, as our religion is founded on 
life with God, for man in heaven. 

As for social rights, the statement is very simple. 
It has been made already. The twentieth century 
will give to every man according to his necessities. 
It will receive from every man according to his 
opportunity. And that will come from the religious 
life of that century, a life with God for man in 
heaven. As for purity, the twentieth century will 
keep the body pure — men as chaste as women. 
Nobody drunk, nobody stifled by this or that poison, 



®t^ (ffirotoning ©ag* 265 

given with this or that pretejise, with everybody free 
to be the engine of the almighty soul. 

All this is to say that the twentieth century is to 
build up its civilization on ideas, not on things that 
perish ; build them on spiritual truths which endure, 
and are the same forever; build them of faith, on 
hope, on love, which are the only elements of eternal 
life. The twentieth century is to build a civilization 
which is to last forever, because it is a civilization of 
an idea. 

The splendid courage which has un- 
(ttaiTltllin* dertaken such a task will not be lost. 
Everything is calling loudly for a radical 
change of attitude on the part of Christian men. 
Our denominational distinctions have for the most 
part become anachronisms. They rest on certain 
hopeless arguments, which can never be settled one 
way nor the other. Our divisions are strangling us. 
The world's best literature, and the world's best sci- 
ence, are already within our borders. The leaders of 
social reform look upon us with suspicion and dis- 
trust. Our attitude toward the Christian world is 
haughty, and unconciliatory in the extreme. 

Meanwhile, material changes, and civilizing influ- 
ences, are flinging the nations into each other's arms. 
The great world, which does not understand the mys- 
tery of its sin and misery, is left without its Savior, 
and he yet waits to possess the world he bought with 
his blood. The federation of Christian men, and 
the prosecution in a spirit of loving sympathy of her 
evangel throughout the world, are the great ideals 



2 



266 a (tfioxm of jF^itff. 

which in the past have made the church illustrious, 
which in the future must be her salvation. 

Is all this distant, far out of reach, and impracti- 
cable ? Doubtless, like the millennium — and we 
might almost say it will be the millennium — it is by- 
no means at our doors. These are only ideals, and 
men sneer at ideals. Already sarcasm has been at 
work on the aims of this great congress. It has been 
"weighed in the balance" of a present day prudence, 
and has been " found wanting." Now, in the nature 
of things, what is to be attempted by this assembly 
must be provisional, tentative, and not immediately 
realizable. It must deal with the unmatured schemes, 
and unripe issues. Else how is a beginning to be 
made? Men of hard and unimaginative minds are 
sure to stigmatize its hopes as visionary. But we are 
not afraid of a word, and if we were, this is not a 
word to be afraid of. 

The world is lead by its ideals. It is the golden 
age to come that cheers us through the dark and 
dreary winter of present experience. It is Canaan, 
with its milk and honey, that makes the wilderness of 
our wanderings endurable. Every great cause, for 
which heroes have bled and brave souls have toiled, 
and sorrowed, has been once an ideal, a dream, a 
hope, and, on coward tongues, an impossibility. It 
has been the peculiar business of religion to furnish 
the illuminating and inspiring ambitions which have 
been as songs in the night of humanity's upward 
march. Speaking humanely, religion is the strongest 
force, and it always will be, because it has always en- 



Ci)e Gtrotoning Jiag, 267 

listed imagination in its service. — The Bearings of 
Religious Unity upon the Work of Missions. 

^'^^'^ Something like a dream of a church 

i^UtllOflt. universal had entered the mind of this 
apostle to the Gentiles. His speech at 
Mars Hill was a prophecy of a Parliament of Relig- 
ions. And his earnest, reproving question, "Is God 
not the God of Gentiles also?" has taken nearly two 
thousand years for its affirmative answer by Christen- 
dom in America. Yes. Paul recognized that all the 
world he knew had some perception of the Infinite. 
But he knew that this perception must have its effect 
upon the moral life, or it would be a mockery indeed. 
And there was much wickedness all about. We see, 
by the letters of Paul, as well as by history, how cor- 
rupt and lawless were many of the customs, both in 
Greece and Rome. Much service was needed. And 
there was a woman in Cenchrea who could not sit 
silent and inactive and see all this. She too must 
work for a Universal Church. She too must bring 
religion into the life of humanity. Realizing that it 
was her duty to help, she entered into this beautiful 
service, we doubt not, as if it were the most natural 
thing in the world to do. 

Yet, notwithstanding this public work of a woman, 
and Paul's plain encouragement of it, the letter of his 
law was the rule of the churches for many centuries; 
and it forbade the sisters from uttering their moral or 
religious word in the sanctuaries, or doing public 
service of any sort for their own and their brother's 
cause. But here and there arose the Phoebes, who 



tUvA_K«-»>,/ 



268 a atiioxm of jFaiti^, 

asked no favors of custom, but insisted on giving the 
service in every way they could; giving it with such 
zeal and spirit that people forgot that there was sex 
in sainthood, and whispered that perhaps they also 
were called of God. — A New Testament Womariy or 
What Did Phoebe Do ? 

The memorable speakers to whom we 
^cf)fta?. have listened in this presence as well as 
those whom we shall hear until the end 
of this Parliament, will serve to reenforce, even by the 
antagonism of religious systems, the desire for abso- 
lute tolerance. Humanity in our East, as well as in 
your West, prays for peace and love. It does not 
want a religion which teaches of a Creator who hates 
his creatures. It does not want a God who prefers an 
involuntary worship to one which freely flows from the 
depths of the human soul. It will bless some day the 
council of Chicago, even should this council proclaim 
for its creed nothing but this one word "tolerance." 
What can result from this great Parliament but 
the general conviction that religions are not barriers 
of iron which separate forever the members of the 
human families, but are barriers of ice which melt at 
the first glance of the sun of love? 

I was once in a Portuguese cathe- 
J^lfiglUSOn, dral when, after the three days of 
mourning, in Holy Week, came the 
final day of Hallelujah. The great church had looked 
dim and sad, with the innumerable windows closely 
curtained, since the moment when the symbolical 



Elfft Gtrotoning JBag. 269 

bier of Jesus was borne to its symbolical tomb beneath 
the High Altar, while the three mystic candles blazed 
above it. There had beea agony and beating of 
cheeks in the darkness, while ghostly processions 
moved through the aisles, and fearful transparencies 
were unrolled from the pulpit. The priests kneeled in 
gorgeous robes, chanting, with their heads resting on 
the altar steps ; the multitude hung expectant on their 
words. Suddenly burst forth a new chant, " Gloria in 
Excelsis! " In that instant every curtain was rolled 
aside, the cathedral was bathed in glory, the organs 
clashed, the bells chimed, flowers were thrown from 
the galleries, little birds were let loose, friends em- 
braced and greeted one another, and we looked down 
upon a tumultuous sea of faces, all floating in a sunlit 
haze. And yet I thought the whole of this sublime 
transformation consisted in letting in the light of day! 
These priests and attendants, each stationed at his 
post, had only removed the darkness they themselves 
had made. Unveil these darkened windows, but re- 
move also these darkened walls ; the temple itself is 
but a lingering shadow of the gloom. Instead of its 
stifling incense, give us God's pure air, and teach us 
that the broadest religion is the best. 

^^Ai^'^ I have turned my back to-day upon the 

J^oh)0, great show in Jackson Park in order to see ^'^^-^^^^'^^'^^^^ 

a greater spectacle here. The daring voyage 
of Columbus across an unknown sea we all remember 
with deep gratitude. All that we have done and all 
that we are now doing is not too much to do honor 
to the loyalty and courage of that one inspired man. 



270 a aHjorus df jTaiti^, 

But the voyages of so many valorous souls into the 
unknown infinite of thought, into the deep questions 
of the soul between men and God — oh, what a voyage 
is that! Oh, what a sea to sail! And I thought, com- 
ing to this Parliament of Religions, we shall have 
found a port at last; after many wanderings we shall 
have come to the one great harbor where all the fleets 
can ride, where all the banners can be displayed, and 
on each banner will be written, so bright that it will 
efface the herald's blazon, these words that Paul 
uttered in Athens, "to the unknown God"; to the 
God who is not unknown because we doubt him, not 
unknown because we do not feel that he is the life of 
our life, the soul of our soul, the light of the world in 
which we live and move, but because he, being infinite, 
transcends our powers, and all humanity, speaking 
from every standpoint, saying all it can, and all that 
it knows, cannot say that it knows him. 

I hoped and still hope that from this Parliament 
something very positive in the way of agreement and 
of practical action will come forth. It has been 
extremely edifying to hear of the good theories of 
duty and morality and piety which the various 
religions advocate. I will put them all on one basis, 
Christian and Jewish and ethnic, which they all pro- 
mulgate to mankind. But what I think we want now 
to do is to inquire why the practice of all nations, our 
own as well as any other, is so much at variance with 
these noble precepts? These great founders of religion 
have made the true sacrifice. They have taken a 
noble human life, full of every human longing and 
passion and power and aspiration, and they have taken 



5ri)e arrotoning Hag- 271 

it all to try and find out something about this ques- 
tion of what God meant man to be and does mean 
him to be. But while they have made this great 
sacrifice, how is it with the multitude of us? Are we 
making any sacrifice at all? We think it was very 
well that those heroic spirits should study, should 
agonize and bleed for us. But what do we do? 

Now, it seems to me very important that from this 
Parliament should go forth a fundamental agreement 
as to what is religion and as to what is not religion. 
I need not stand here to repeat any definition of what 
religion is. I think you will all say that it is aspira- 
tion, the pursuit of the divine in the human; the sacri- 
fice of everything to duty for the sake of God and of 
humanity and of our own individual dignity. 

I think nothing is religion which puts one indi- 
vidual absolutely above others, and surely nothing is 
religion which puts one sex above another. Religion 
is primarily our relation to the Supreme, to God him- 
self. It is for him to judge; it is for him to say where 
we belong, who is the highest and who is not; of that 
we know nothing. And any religion which will sacri- 
fice a certain set of human beings for the enjoyment 
or aggrandizement or advantage of another, is no 
religion. It is a thing which may be allowed, but it 
is against true religion. Any religion which sacrifices 
women to the brutality of men, is no religion. 

From this Parliament let some valorous, new, 
strong, and courageous influence go forth, and let us 
have here an agreement of all faiths for one good end, 
for one good thing — really for the glory of God, 



272 a atiiotm of jFaiti^. 

really for the salvation of humanity from all that is 
low and animal and unworthy and undivine. 

The religion of the Brahmo-Somaj 
iEtagatfeat* is essentially a religion of life — the 
•^ik-^UA**^— living and life-giving religion of love 

Jrv^v.^^** to god and love to man. Its corner-stones are the 
V fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the 

sisterhood of women. We uphold reform in religion 
and religion in reform. While we advocate that every 
religion needs to be reformed, we also most firmly 
hold that every reform, in order that it may be a liv- 
ing and lasting power for good, needs to be based on 
religion. 

And now, my brethren and sisters in America, God 
has made you a free people. Liberty, equality, and 
fraternity are the guiding words that you have pinned 
on your banner of progress and advancement. In 
the name of that liberty of thought and action for the 
sake of which your noble forefathers forsook their an- 
cestral homes in far off Europe, in the name of that 
equality of peace and position which you so much 
prize and which you so nobly exemplify in all your social 
and national institutions, I entreat you, my beloved 
American brothers and sisters, to grant us your bless- 
ings and good wishes, to give us your earnest advice 
and active cooperation in the realization of the social, 
political, and religious aspirations of young India. 
God has given you a mission. Even now he is enact- 
ing through your instrumentality most marvelous 
events. Read his holy will through these events and 
extend to young India the right hand of holy fellow- 
ship and universal brotherhood. 



E\)t ittrotomng ©ag. 273 

'Vv^ Women are needed in the pulpit as . * • 

i^IacktO^IL imperatively, and for the same reason, 
as they are needed in the world — 
because they are women. Women have become — or 
when the ingrained habit of unconscious imitation 
has been superseded, they will become — indispensable 
to the religious evolution of the human race. Every 
religion for the people must be religion sought after 
and interpreted by the people. So only can it be- 
come adequate mentally and spiritually to the uni- 
versal needs, and to the intelligent acceptance, of 
a whole humanity. Every teacher having taken into 
his own heart a central principle around which clusters 
a kindred group of ideas all baptized in the light of 
his believing soul, brings to us vividly the fullness of 
his personal convictions. His words are alight with 
his thought, are warm with his feeling, are alive with 
his life. To me, the pulpit of the future will be a 
consecrated platform upon which may stand every 
such soul and freely proclaim those best and highest 
convictions which most convince, strengthen, com- 
fort, and elevate his own mental and spiritual being. 

The truth, spoken in love, is the '* 
^l^dL^f^hUXtl* only possible basis upon which this 
Parliament can stand. We have a 
common Father; we are brethren; we desire to live 
together in peace, or we should not be here; but of 
all things we desire to know what is truth, for truth 
alone can make us free. 

We are soldiers all, without a thought of ever lay- 
ing down our arms, but we have come here to learn 
18 



k 



274 a orijcirus of 4Faiti). 

the lesson that our conflict is not with each other, but 
with error, sin, and evil of every kind. We are one 
in our hatred of evil and in our desire for the triumph 
of the kingdom of God, but we are only partially 
agreed as to what is truth, or under what banner the 
triumph of God's kingdom is to be won. 

And why not strive through the coming 
iS^O^Ut. ages to live in fraternal concord and har- 
monious unison with all the nations on the 
globe? Not theory, but practice; deed, not creed; 
should be the watchword of modern races stamped 
with the blazing characters of rational equity, and 
unselfish brotherhood. Why not, then, admit the 
scions of the mother religion, the wandering Jew of 
myth, and harsh reality, into the throbbing affections 
of faith-permeating, equitable peoples now inhabiting 
the mighty hemispheres of culture and civilization? 

The scions of many creeds are convened at Chi- 
cago's succoring Parliament of Religions, aglow with 
enthusiasm, imbued with the courage of expiring fear, 
electrified with the absorbing anticipation of dawning 
light. The hour has struck. Will the stone of abuse, 
a burden brave Israel bore for countless centuries, 
on the rebellious well of truth, be shattered at last 
into merciless fragments by that invention of every 
day philosophy — the gunpowder of modern war — 
rational conviction; and finally, a blessed destiny 
establish peace for all faiths and unto all mankind? 
Who knows? 



JTfje (ttrotoumg Bag* 275 

Lookinef for the results of our r i 
J^Ug^nj^Olt^. Parliament, we must not forget that it 
is already a result in itself, a glorious 
result of the advanced conception of religion as a com- 
mon good of mankind. Truth and untruth do not 
come together for a peaceful meeting. Divine revela- 
tion and diabolical inflation do not seek each other 
for mutual edification. That, therefore, the different 
religions of the world actually did come together, 
is itself a truth of the advanced religious thought of 
our age. 

Let all of us move to see which of us can best and 
soonest live up to the highest demands of his religion, 
which of us first can overcome the sad differences be- 
tween creed and deed, between his professed and his 
applied religion. 

And whenever we discover, as in these days we 
could many times, whenever we discover in the relig- 
ion of others something that is lacking or less devel- 
oped in ours, let us try to also aim that such precious 
good shall enrich our own religion with the spiritual 
pleasures found elsewhere. 

This, indeed, will be to promote the free, the un- 
prejudiced development of the religious life by which, 
if all of us are thus advancing along our different 
lines, at the end we will meet each other on the 
heights, when the consciousness of being near to God 
will fill all his children with everlasting joy. 



276 a at|)oru!S Df jFaiHj. 

7Vi^» To build a substantial house, we begin 

"^ StflTttOlt. with the cellar and lay the foundations 

strong and deep, for on it depends the 
safety of the whole superstructure. So in race build- 
ing, for noble specimens of humanity, for peace and 
prosperity in their conditions we must begin with the 
lowest stratum of society and see that the masses are 
well-fed, clothed, sheltered, educated, elevated, and 
enfranchised. Social morality, clean, pleasant envir- 
onments, must precede a spiritual religion that 
enables man to understand the mysteries binding him 
to the seen and unseen universe. 

This radical work cannot be done by what is 
called charity, but by teaching sound principles of 
domestic economy to our educated classes, showing 
that by law, custom, and false theories of natural 
rights they are responsible for the poverty, ignorance, 
and vice of the masses. Those who train the relig- 
ious conscience of the people must teach the lesson 
that all these artificial distinctions in society must be 
obliterated by securing equal conditions and oppor- 
tunities for all; this cannot be done in a day; but 
this is the goal for which we must strive. The first 
step to this end is to educate the people into the idea 
that such a moral revolution is possible. 

It is folly to talk of a just government and a pure 
religion, where the state and the church alike sustain 
an aristocracy of wealth and ease, while those who do 
the hard work of the world have no share in the bless- 
ings and riches that their continued labors have made 
possible for others to enjoy. Is it just that the many 
should ever suffer that the few may shine? 



ffl:i)e atrotottitig Jiag* 277 

The reconciliation of man to his brother is a more 
practical religion than that of man to his father, and 
the process is more easily understood. The word 
religion means to bind again, to unite those who have 
been separated, to harmonize those who have been in 
antagonism. Thus far the attitude of man to man has 
been hostile — ever in competition, trying to over-reach 
and enslave each other. With hope we behold the dawn 
of the new day in the general awakening to the needs 
of the laboring masses. We hail the work of the Sal- 
vation Army, the King's Daughters, the kindergarten 
and ragged schools for children of the poor, the 
university settlements, etc. All these added to our 
innumerable charities show that the trend of thought 
is setting in the right direction for the health, happi- 
ness and education of the lowest classes of humanity. 

Variety in unity and unity in variety is pi ' / * 
Sbt^^if' the law of God in nature, in history, and in | a. 
his kingdom. Unity without variety is "^ 

dead uniformity. There is beauty in variety. There 
is no harmony without many sounds, and a garden 
incloses all kinds of flowers. God has made no two 
nations, no two men or women, nor even two trees or 
two flowers alike. He has endowed every nation, 
every church, yea, every individual Christian with pe- 
culiar gifts and graces. His power, his wisdom, and 
his goodness are reflected in ten thousand forms. 

But truth is many sided, and all sided, and is re- 
flected in different colors. The creeds of Christen- 
dom, as already remarked, agree in the essential articles 
of faith, and their differences refer either to minor 






278 a (ttijotugi of jFaitij. 

points, or represent only various aspects of truth and 
supplement one another. 

We must remember that the dogmas of the church 
are earthly vessels for heavenly treasures, or imperfect 
human definitions of divine truths, and may be 
proved by better statements with the advance of 
knowledge. Our theological systems are but dim rays 
of the sun of truth which illuminates the universe. 
Truth first, doctrine next, dogma last. — The Reunion 
of Christendom, 

St. Augustin observed: "Thou, O 
^X^tXXiZX* God, hast made us for thee, and our 
heart is unquiet until it will rest in 
thee." The consciousness of our relation to God, 
including the corresponding duties toward him, our- 
selves, and our fellow-men, is what we call religion. 
Religion is the most sublime gift of human nature, 
the crowning perfection of man's rational faculties. 
It is, next to God himself, the most fundamental, the 
most important, and the most interesting matter which 
can engage the attention of a serious mind. It is the 
ever new and ever live question of questions of re- 
flecting mankind, on the solution of which the solu- 
tions of all other great questions in science, philos- 
ophy, private morality, and public policy ultimately 
depend. It is religion which gives the most charac- 
teristic coloring and the most decided direction to 
human life in all its phases — private, social, and 
public. 

While we profoundly respect the God-given senti- 
ments in every human heart, we, as children of one 



5ri)e iStrntoninB Bag; 279 

heavenly Father, cannot but deeply deplore the lament- 
able religious disunion in the human family. Can it 
be the will of the one good common Father of us all 
that this chaotic disharmony of his children should 
be a permanent state? Certainly not. He whose guid- 
ing hand has led order and harmony out of the dis- 
cordant conflicting elements of the universe, who has 
made a cosmos out of chaos, will undoubtedly also 
lead his children on earth again to religious unity, so 
that they will live together again as members of one 
family with but one heart and one soul as you read of 
the first Christians. — The Primitive and Prospective 
Religious Reunion of the Human Family. 

Vvrv^ "^ , In an age of force, woman's greatest 

SlS^tUattl. grace was to cling: in this age of peace 
she doesn't cling much, but is every bit 
as tender and as sweet as if she did. She has strength 
and individuality, a gentle seriousness; there is more of 
a sister, less of the syren — more of the duchess, and 
less of the doll. Woman is becoming what God 
meant her to be, and Christ's gospel necessitates her 
being the companion and counselor, not the encum- 
brance and toy, of men. 

To meet this new creation, how grandly men them- 
selves are growing; how considerate and brotherly, 
how pure in word and deed! The world has never 
yet known half the aptitude of character and life to 
which men will attain when they and women live in 
the same world. 



28o a ati)oru!S of jFaidj* 

If there is ever to be a universal 
^ Wb^feawailllia. religion it must be one which will 

hold no location in place or time; 
which will be infinite, like the God it will preach; 
whose sun shines upon the followers of Krishna, or 
Christ, saints or sinners, alike; which will not be the 
Brahmin or Buddhist, Christian or Mohammedan, but 
the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space 
for development; which in its catholicity will embrace 
in its infinite arms, and find a place for every human 
being, from the lowest groveling man, from the brute 
to the highest mind, towering almost above humanity, 
and making society stand in awe and doubt his human 
nature. 

It will be a religion which will have no place for 
persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will 
recognize a divinity in every man or woman, and 
whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be centered 
in aiding humanity to realize its divine nature. 

Asoka's council was a council of the Buddhist faith. 
Akbar's, though more to the purpose, was only a par- 
lor meeting. It was reserved for America to proclaim 
to all quarters of the globe that the Lord is in every 
religion. 

May He who is the Brahma of the Hindus, the 
Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of the 
Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in 
Heaven of the Christians, give strength to you to carry 
out your noble idea. 

The star arose in the East, it traveled steadily 
toward the West, sometimes dimmed and sometimes 
effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world, and now 



JTije (!trota)ning Bag. ^si 

it is again rising on the very horizon of the East, the 
borders of the Tasifu, a thousand-fold more effulgent 
than it ever was before. Hail, Columbia, motherland 
of liberty! It has been given to thee, who never 
dipped hand in neighbor's blood, who never found 
out that shortest way of becoming rich by robbing 
one's neighbors, it has been given to thee to march 
on in the vanguard of civilization with the flag of 
harmony. — Hinduism as a Religion. 



FAREWELL. 



2?3 



O glad, exulting, culminating song ! 

A vigor more than earth's is in thy notes, 

Marches of victory — man disenthrall 'd — the conqueror at last, 

Hymns to the universal God from universal man — all joy ! 

A re-born race appears — a perfect world, all joy ! 

Women and men in wisdom, innocence and health — all joy ! 

War, sorrow, suffering gone — the rank earth purged — nothing 

but joy left ! 
Joy 1 joy ! in freedom, worship^ love ! joy in the ecstasy of life. 

Walt Whitman. 



284 



FAREWELL. 



The closing session of the Parliament was, in many 
respects, a repetition of the opening scene, intensified 
and steadied by the seventeen days of high inter- 
course. For three days there had been great concern 
on the part of the throng in attendance concerning 
the seating privileges of the hall. It became obvious 
that Washington Hall would be inadequate to accom- 
modate the throng, and arrangements were perfected 
for a double meeting. All the official representatives, 
visitors from abroad, ministers and their wives, and 
the Apollo Club Chorus of six hundred voices were 
given tickets that admitted into Columbus Hall. All 
those who had registered as members and who were 
entitled to the Parliament button were given tickets 
admitting them into Washington Hall. As early as 
five o'clock on Wednesday evening, September 27, 
the crowd began to gather, and before the doors were 
opened at seven o'clock several thousand people were 
packed in a mass that reached to the sidewalk. The 
work of seating was a difficult, and at times, even 
a dangerous task. But, by a little after eight o'clock, 
both halls were crowded. All available space was 
occupied, and many were turned away. Over six 
thousand people were admitted by ticket. The meet- 
ing in Columbus Hall was directed by President Bon- 
ney and Chairman Barrows. The meeting in Wash- 

285 



286 a iffiijorus df dfaitt), 

ington Hall was conducted by Rev. L. P. Mercer and 
Mr. Jones. The entire program was repeated in 
Washington Hall except the music of the Apollo 
Club. But this latter audience broke out once or 
twice into unpremeditated song on its own part. The 
speeches given on this occasion are printed below, 
slightly condensed, from the Herald reports. But 
here as in the opening session much that was kindling 
to mind and heart, moving now to tears and again to 
laughter, was unreported and unreportable. Well 
might President Bonney say that "The Hallelujah 
Chorus has never been given on a more august occa- 
sion. The gifted composer himself had never expected 
that it would be sung to the assembled religions of 
the world met in the interest of peace and progress." 

FROM THE PARTING GUESTS. 

Before we part I wish to say three 
i^OmecU. things. First of all I want to tender 
tx^W*/-*^ ™y warmest congratulations to Dr. Bar- 

rows. I do not believe there is another man living 
who could have carried this Congress through and 
made it such a gigantic success. It needed a head, a 
heart, an energy, a common sense and a pluck such 
as I have never known to be united before in a single 
individual. 

Secondly, I should like to offer my congratulations 
to the American people. This Parliament of Religions 
has been held in the new world. I confess I wish it 
had been held in the old world, in my own country, 
and that it had had its origin in my own church. It 
is the greatest event so far in the history of the world, 



and it has been held on American soil. I congratu- 
late the people of America. Their example will be 
followed in time to come in other countries and by 
other peoples, but there is one honor which will 
always be America's, the honor of having led the 
way. And certainly I should like to offe~ my con- 
gratulations to you, the citizens of Chicago. 

The Parliament of Religions is a new thing in the 
world. Most people, even those who regarded the 
idea with pleasure, thought that it was an impossi- 
bility. But it has been achieved. Here in this Hall 
of Columbus vast audiences have assembled day after 
day, the members of which came from all churches 
and from all sects and sometimes from no church at 
all. Here they sat side by side during long, I had 
almost said weary, hours; the hours would have been 
weary but for their enthusiasm. Here they sat side 
by side during the long hours of the day listening to 
doctrines which they, had been taught to regard 
with contempt; listening with respect, with sympathy, 
with an earnest desire to learn something which would 
improve their own doctrines. 

And here on the platform have sat as brethren the 
representatives of churches and sects which, during 
bygone centuries hated and cursed one another, and 
scarcely a word has fallen from any of us which could 
possibly give offense. If occasionally the old Adam 
did show itself, if occasionally something was said 
which had been better left unsaid, no harm was done. 
It only served to kindle into a flame of general and 
universal enthusiasm your brotherly love. It seemed 
^n impossibility, but here in Chicago the impossible 



288 a (Ei)oxm nf jFaitf). 

has been realized. You have shown that you do not 
believe in impossibilities. It could not have been 
realized but for you. It could not have been realized 
without your sympathy and your enthusiasm. 

Citizens of Chicago, I congratulate you. If you 
show yourselves in other things as great as you have 
shown yourselves in regard to this Parliament of 
Religions, most assuredly the time will come when 
Chicago will be the first city in America, the first city 
in the world. 

Brethren of Different Faiths: 
i^O^OOmtiat. — This Parliament of Religions, this 
concourse of spirits, is to break up 
before to-morrow's sun. What lessons have we 
learned from our incessant labors? Firstly, the charge 
of materialism, laid against the age in general and 
against America in particular, is refuted forever. 
Could these myriads have spent their time, their en- 
ergy, neglected their business, their pleasures, to be 
present with us if their spirit had not risen above their 
material needs or carnal desires? The spirit domi- 
nates still over matter and over mankind. 

Secondly, the unity of purpose and feeling unmis- 
takably shown in the harmonious proceedings of these 
seventeen days teaches that men with opposite views, 
denominations with contradictory principles and his- 
tories, can form one congregation, one household, 
one body, for however short a time, when animated 
by one spirit. Who is, or what is, that spirit? It is 
the spirit of God himself. This unity of man with 
man is the unity of man with God, and the unity of 



man with man in God is the kingdom of heaven. 
When I came here by the invitation of you, Mr. 
President, I came with the hope of seeing the object 
of my lifelong faith and labors, viz.: the harmony of 
religions effected. The last public utterance of ray 
leader, Keshub Chunder Sen, made in 1883, in his 
lecture called "Asia's Message to Europe" was this: 

" Here will meet the world's representatives, the 
foremost spirits, the most living hearts, the leading 
thinkers and devotees of each church, and offer 
united homage to the king of kings and the 
Lord of Lords. This central union church is no 
Utopian fancy, but a veritable reality, whose begin- 
ning we see already among the nations of the earth. 
Already the right wing of each church is pressing 
forward, and the advanced liberals are drawing near 
each other under the central banner of the new dis- 
pensation. 

" Believe me, the time is coming when the more 
liberal of the Catholic and Protestant branches of 
Christ's church will advance and meet upon a com- 
mon platform, and form a broad Christian commun- 
ity, in which all shall be identified, in spite of all 
diversities and differences in non-essential matters of 
faith. So shall the Baptists and Methodists, Trini- 
tarian and Unitarian, the Ritualists and the Evangel- 
ical, all unite in a broad and universal church 
organization, loving, honoring, serving the common 
body, while retaining the peculiarities of each sect. 
Only the broad of each sect shall for the present 
come forward, and others shall follow in time. 

" The base remains where it is; the vast masses at 
19 



290 a (ti)oxm of Jfaiti^. 

the foot of each church will yet remain perhaps for 
centuries where they now are. But as you look to 
the lofty heights above, you will see all the bolder 
spirits and broader souls of each church pressing for- 
ward, onward, heavenward. Come, then, my friends, 
ye broad-hearted of all the churches, advance and 
shake hands with each other and promote that spir- 
itual fellowship, that kingdom of heaven which Christ 
predicted." 

These words were said in 1883, and in 1893 every 
letter of the prophecy has been fulfilled. The king- 
dom of heaven is to my mind a vast concentric circle 
with various circumferences of doctrines, authorities 
and organizations from outer to inner, from inner to 
inner still, until heaven and earth become one. The 
outermost circle is belief in God and the love of man. 
In the tolerance, kindliness, good-will, patience, and 
wisdom which have distinguished the work of this 
Parliament that outermost circle of the kingdom of 
heaven has been described. We have influenced vast 
numbers of men and women of all opinions and the 
influence will spread and spread. So many human 
unities drawn within the magnetic circle of spiritual 
sympathy cannot but influence and widen the various 
denominations to which they belong. In the course 
of time those inner circles must widen also till the love 
of man and the love of God are perfected in one 
church, one God, one salvation. 

And now farewell. For once in history all religions 
have made their peace, all nations have called each 
other brothers, and their representatives have for 
seventeen days stood up morning after morning to 



jFaretoell. 291 

pray Our Father, the universal father of all, in heaven. 
His will has been done so far, and in the great coming 
future may that blessed will be done further and 
further, forever and ever. 

I hardly realize that it is for the 
^li^OlikOttfilkS* last time in my life I have the honor, 
the pleasure, the fortune to speak to 
you. On this occasion, before bidding you farewell, 
I want to express a wish: May the good feelings you 
have shown me so many times spread through my un- 
worthy personality to the people of my country, whom 
you know so little, and whom I love so much. A 
compatriot said the other day that Russians thought 
all Americans were angels, and that Americans thought 
all Russians were brutes. Now, once in a while, these 
angels and these brutes come together, and both are 
deceived in their expectations. We see that you are 
certainly not angels, and you see we are not quite as 
much brute as you thought we were. 

Now, why this disappointment? Why this sur- 
prise? Why this astonishment? Because we won't 
remember that we are men, and nothing else and 
nothing more. We cannot be anything more, for to 
be a man is the highest thing we can pretend to be on 
this earth. I do not know whether many have 
learned, in the sessions of this Parliament, what re- 
spect of God is, but I know that no one will leave the 
Congress without having learned what respect of 
man is. 

Should this Congress have no other result than to 
teach us to judge our fellow-man by his individual 



292 a (tf)oxm Df jFaiti^. 

value, and not by the political opinions he may have 
of his country, I will express my gratitude to the Con- 
gress, not only in the name of those, your brothers, 
who are my countrymen, but in the name of those, 
our brothers, whom we so often revile because the 
political traditions of their country refuse the recogni- 
tion of home rule; in the name of those, our fellow- 
men, whose mother-land stands on the neck of India; 
in the name of those, our brothers, whom we so often 
blame only because the governments of their countries 
send rapacious armies on the western, southern, and 
eastern coasts of Africa. I will express my gratitude 
to the Congress in the name of those, my brothers, 
whom we often judge so wrongly because of the cruel 
treatment their government inflicts upon the Chinese. 
I will congratulate the Congress in the name of the 
whole world if those who have been here have learned 
that, as long as politics and politicians exist, there is 
no happiness possible on earth. I will congratulate 
the Congress in the name of all humanity if those 
who have attended these sessions have realized that it 
is a crime to be astonished when we see that another 
human being is a man like ourselves. 

We cannot but admire the tolerant for- 
Ji^iXdii* bearance and compassion of the people of 
the civilized West. You are the pioneers 
in human history. You have achieved an assembly 
of the world's religions, and we believe your next step 
will be toward the ideal goal of this Parliament, the 
realization of international justice. We ourselves 
desire to witness its fulfillment in our lifetime and to 



greet you again with our deepest admiration. By 
your kind hospitality we have forgotten that we are 
strangers, and we are very much attached to this city. 
To leave here makes us feel as if we were leaving our 
native country. To part with you makes us feel as if 
we were parting from our own sisters and brothers. 
When we think of our homeward journey we cannot 
help shedding tears. Farewell. The cold winter is 
coming, and we earnestly wish that you may be in 
good health. Farewell. — Speaking for the Japanese 
Buddhist Delegation. 

It is unnecessary for me to 
$Ung IKtoatlg li'u* touch upon the existing rela- 
tions between the government 
of China and that of the United States. There is no 
doubt that the Chinese minister at Washington and 
the honorable Secretary of State are well able to deal 
with every question arising between the two countries 
in a manner satisfactory and honorable to both. As 
I am a delegate to the Religious Congresses, I cannot 
but feel that all religious people are my friends. 
I have a favor to ask of all the religious people of 
America, and that is that they will treat, hereafter, all 
my countrymen just as they have treated me. I shall 
be a hundred times more grateful to them for the 
kind treatment of my countrymen than of myself. I 
am sure that the Americans in China receive just such 
considerate treatment from the cultured people of 
China as I have received from you. The majority of 
my countrymen in this country are honest and law- 
abiding. Christ teaches us that it is not enough to 



7 



^94 a aHjoru^of jFaiti^* 

love one's brethren only. I am sure that all religious 
people will not think this request too extravagant. 

It is my sincere hope that no national differences 
will ever interrupt the friendly relations between the 
two governments and that the two peoples will equally 
enjoy the protection and blessings of heaven. I 
intend to leave this country shortly. I shall take 
great pleasure in reporting to my government the 
proceedings of this Parliament upon my return. With 
this I desire to bid all my friends farewell. 

I am here on the platform again to ex- 
Sflltiata* press my thanks for the kindness, hearty 
welcome and applause I have been en- 
joying at your hands ever since I came here to Chicago. 
You have shown great sympathy with my humble opin- 
ion. I am happy that I have had the honor of listen- 
ing to so many famous scholars and preachers for- 
warding the same opinion of the necessity of universal 
brotherhood and humanity. I am deeply impressed 
with the peace, politeness, and education which char- 
acterize your audiences. But is it not too sad that 
such pleasures are always short-lived? I, who made 
acquaintance with you only yesterday, have to part 
with you to-day, though reluctantly. This Parliament 
of Religions is the most remarkable event in history, 
and it is the first honor in my life to have had the 
privilege of appearing before you to pour out my 
humble idea, which has been so well accepted by you 
all. You like me, but I think it is not the mortal 
Shibata that you like, but you like the immortal idea 
of universal brotherhood. 



4FaretoelL 295 

What I wish to do is to assist you in carrying out 
the plan of forming the universal brotherhood under 
the one roof of truth. You know unity is power. I, 
who can speak no language but Japanese, may help 
you in crowning that grand project with success. To 
come here I had many obstacles to overcome, many 
struggles to make. You must not think I represent 
all Shintoism, I only represent my own Shinto sect. 
But who dares to destroy universal fraternity? So 
long as the sun and moon continue to shine all 
friends of truth must be willing to fight courageously 
for this great principle. I do not know as I shall 
ever see you again in this life, but our souls have been 
so pleasantly united here that I hope they may be 
again united in the life hereafter. 

Now I pray that eight million deities protecting the 
beautiful cherry-tree country of Japan may protect you 
and your government forever, and with this I bid you 
good-by. 

Peace, blessings and salutations! f^w^^Cv*^ 
HBjiattnapala. Brethren : This Parliament of 
Religions has achieved a stupend- 
ous work in bringing before you the representatives 
of the religions and philosophies of the East. The 
committee on religious congresses has realized the 
Utopian idea of the poet and the visionary. 

I, on behalf of the four hundred and seventy-five 
millions of my co-religionists, followers of the gentle 
Lord, Buddha-Gautama, tender my affectionate 
regards to you. And you, my brothers and sisters, 
born in this land of freedom, you have learned from 



296 a (t\iOxm Df dFaiti^. 

your brothers of the far East their presentation of the 
respective religious systems they follow. You have 
listened with commendable patience to the teachings 
of the all-merciful Buddha through his humble 
followers. During his earthly career of forty-five 
years he labored in emancipating the human mind 
from religious prejudices, and teaching a doctrine 
which has made Asia mild. By the patient and 
laborious researches of the men of science you are 
given to enjoy the fruits of material civilization, but 
this civilization by itself finds no praise at the hands 
of the great naturalists of the day. 

Learn to think without prejudice, love all beings 
for love's sake, express your convictions fearlessly, 
lead a life of purity, and the sunlight of truth will 
illuminate you. If theology and dogma stand in 
your way in the search of truth, put them aside. Be 
earnest and work out your own salvation with 
diligence ; and the fruits of holiness will be yours. 

It is with deepest joy that I take my 
iffatltllltl. part in the congratulations of this clos- 
ing day. The Parliament has more than 
justified my most sanguine expectations. As a mis- 
sionary I anticipate that it will make a new era of 
missionary enterprise and missionary hope. If it does 
not it will not be your fault, and let those take the 
blame who make it otherwise. Very sure I am that 
at least one missionary, who counts himself the 
humblest member of this noble assembly, will carry 
through every day of work, through every hour of 
effort till the sun of life sets on the completion of his 



task, the strengthening memory and uplifting inspira- 
tion of this Pentecost. 

By this Parliament the City of Chicago has placed 
herself far away above all the cities of the earth. In 
this school you have learned what no other town or 
city in the world yet knows. The conventional idea 
of religion which obtains among Christians the world 
over is that Christianity is true, all other religions 
false; that Christianity is of God, while other religions 
are of the devil; or else, with a little spice of modera- 
tion, that Christianity is a revelation from Heaven, 
while other religions are manufactures of men. You 
know better, and with clear light and strong assur- 
ance can testify that there may be friendship instead 
of antagonism between religion and religion; that so 
surely as God is our common father, our hearts alike 
have yearned for him and our souls in devoutest 
moods have caught whispers of grace dropped from 
his throne. 

Then this is Pentecost, and beyond is the conver- 
sion of the world. 

The World's Parliament of Re- Jl^^^ 
'fcTibekattatttJa. Hgions has become an accomplished 
fact, and the merciful Father has 
helped those who labored to bring it into existence, 
and crowned with success their most unselfish labor. 
Much has been said of the common ground of re- 
ligious unity. I am not going just now to venture my 
own theory. But if anyone here hopes that this unity 
will come by the triumph of any one of these religions 
and the destruction of the others, to him I say : 



298 a (ti)Oxm of jTaiti^. 

" Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish 
that the Christian would become Hindu? God for- 
bid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would 
become Christian? God forbid. 

The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air 
and water are placed around it. Does the seed be- 
come the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It be- 
comes a plant, it develops after the law of its own 
growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, 
converts them into plant substance, and grows a plant. 

Similar is the case with religion. The Christian 
is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu 
or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must 
assimilate the others and yet preserve its individuality 
and grow according to its own law of growth. 

If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything 
to the world it is this : It has proved to the world 
that holiness, purity, and charity are not the exclusive 
possessions of any church in the world and that every 
system has produced men and women of the most ex- 
alted character. 

In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of 
the exclusive survival of his own and the destruction 
of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, 
and point out to him that upon the banner of every 
religion would soon be written, in spite of their resis- 
tance : " Help and Not Fight," "Assimilation and 
Not Destruction," " Harmony and Peace and Not 
Dissension." 



Are we not all sorry that we are part- (f 
(Qjij^antlt. ing so soon? Do we not wish that this Jf 

Parliament would last seventeen times 
seventeen days? Have we not heard with pleasure 
and interest the speeches of the learned representa- 
tives on this platform? Do we not see that the 
sublime dream of the organizers of this unique Par- 
liament have been more than realized? If you will 
only permit a heathen to deliver his message of peace 
and love, I shall only ask you to look at the multi- 
farious ideas presented to you in a liberal spirit, and 
not with superstition and bigotry, as the seven blind 
men did in the elephant story. 

Once upon a time in a great city an elephant was 
brought with a circus. The people had never seen 
an elephant before. There were seven blind men in 
the city who longed to know what kind of an animal it 
was, so they went together to the place where the 
elephant was kept. One of them placed his hands 
on the ears, another on the legs, a third on the tail 
of the elephant, and so on. When they were asked 
by the people what kind of an animal the elephant 
was, one of the blind men said: "Oh, to be sure, the 
elephant is like a big winnowing fan." Another 
blind man said: "No, my dear sir, you are wrong. 
The elephant is more like a big, round post." The 
third: "You are quite mistaken; it is like a tapering 
stick." The rest of them gave also their different 
opinions. The proprietor of the circus stepped for- 
ward and said: " My friends you are all mistaken. 
You have not examined the elephant from all sides. 



CtA^^X^KA^ 



300 a iK!)ortti5 Df jFaiti^. 

Had you done so you would not have taken one- 
sided views." 

Brothers and sisters, I entreat you to hear the 
moral of this story and learn to examine the various 
religious systems from all standpoints. 

Nearly one thousand nine hundred 
ilHS£(l$a(|UOt« years ago, at the great dawn of Chris- 
tian morning, we saw benighted Africa 
opening her doors to the infant Savior, Jesus Christ, 
afterwards the founder of one of the greatest religions 
man ever embraced, and the teacher of the highest 
and noblest sentiments ever taught, whose teach- 
ing has resulted in the presence of this magnificent 
audience. 

As I sat in this audience listening to the distin- 
guished delegates and representatives in this assem- 
bly of learning, of philosophy, of systems of religions 
represented by scholarship and devout hearts, I said 
to myself: "What shall the harvest be?" 

I'he very atmosphere seems pregnant with an inde- 
finable, inexpressible something, something too sol- 
emn for human utterance, something I dare not 
attempt to express. Previous to this gathering the 
greatest enmity existed among the world's religions. 
To-night — I dare not speak as one seeing visions or 
dreaming dreams — but this night it seems that the 
world's religions, instead of striking one against an- 
other, have come together in amicable deliberation 
and have created a lasting and congenial spirit among 
themselves. May the coming together of these wise 
men result in the full realization of the general par- 



liament of God, the brotherhood of man, and the 
consecration of souls to the service of God. 

FROM THOSE WHO ARE TO REMAIN. 

Fathers of the contemplative East; 
iSoaCtiman. sons of the executive West — behold j^^U^tuX^ 

how good and how pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity. The New Jeru- 
salem, the City of God, is descending, heaven and 
earth chanting the eternal hallelujah chorus. 



IJ 



The privilege of being with you on the 
^iXfitfi* morning when, in glory under God's bless- /f^-^ 

ing, this Parliament was opened was denied 
me. At the very hour when here the first words of 
consecration were spoken, I and all other rabbis were 
attending worship in our own little temples, and could 
thus only in spirit be with you, who were come together 
in this much grander temple. But we all felt when 
the trumpet in our ritual announced the birth of a 
new religious year, that here blazoned forth at that very 
moment a clearer blast heralding for all humanity the 
dawn of a new era. 

None could appreciate the deeper significance of this 
Parliament more fully than we, the heirs of a past span- 
ning the millenia, and the motive of whose achievements 
and fortitude was and is the confident hope of the 
ultimate break of the millennium. Millions of my co- 
religionists hoped that this convocation of this mod- 
ern great synagogue would sound the death knell of 
hatred and prejudice, under which they have pined 
and are still suffering ; and their hope has not been 



302 a (Riioxm nf jTaiti). 

disappointed. Of old, Palestine's hills were every 
month aglow with firebrands announcing the rise of a 
new month. 

So here were kindled the cheering fires telling the 
whole world that a new period of time had been con- 
secrated. We Jews came hither to give and to receive. 
For what little we could bring we have been richly 
rewarded by the precious things we received in turn. 

According to an old rabbinical practice, friends 
among us never part without first discussing some 
problem of religious life. Our whole Parliament has 
been devoted to such discussion, and we take hence 
with us in parting the richest treasures of religious in- 
struction ever laid before man. Thus, the old Tal- 
mudic promise will be verified in us that when even 
three come together to study God's law his Shekinah 
abides with them. 

Then let me bid you godspeed in the old Jewish 
salutation of peace. When one is carried to his resting 
place, we Jews will bid him "Go in peace;" but when 
one who is still in the land of the living turns from us to 
go to his daily task, we greet him with the phrase, "Go 
thou toward peace." Let me then speed you on your 
way toward peace. For the Parliament is not the 
gateway to death. It is a new portal to a new life ; 
for all of us a life of greater love for, and greater trust 
in, one another. Peace will not yet come, but it is to 
come. It will come when the seed here planted will 
sprout up to blossom and fruitage ; when no longer 
we see through a blurred glass, but, like Moses of old, 
through a translucent mirror. May God, then, bless 
you, Brother Chairman, whose loyalty and zeal have 



jFarctoell. 303 

led us safely through the night of doubt to this bright 
hour of a happy and glorious consummation. 

Then let us pray that come it may. 

That man to man, the wan o er, » '**" ^vw*- -» r 

Shall brithers be for a' that. 

Infinite good, and only good, will come from this 
Parliament. To all who have come from afar we are 
profoundly and eternally indebted. Some of them 
represent civilization that was old when Romulus was 
founding Rome, whose philosophies and songs were 
ripe in wisdom and rich in rhythm before Homer sang 
his Iliads to the Greeks; and they have enlarged our 
ideas of our common humanity. They have brought 
to us fragrant flowers from the gardens of Eastern 
faiths, rich gems from the old mines of great philoso- 
phies, and we are richer to-night from their contribu- 
tions of thought, and particularly from our contact 
with them in spirit. 

Never was there such a bright and hopeful day for 
our common humanity along the lines of tolerance 
and universal brotherhood. And we shall find that 
by the words that these visitors have brought to us, 
and by the influence they have exerted, they will be 
richly rewarded in the consciousness of having con- 
tributed to the mighty movement which holds in itself 
the promise of one faith, one Lord, one Father, one 
brotherhood. A distinguished writer has said, it is 
always morn somewhere in the world. The time hast- 
ens when a greater thing will be said, 'tis always 
morn everywhere in the world. The darkness has 



304 ai (R\)oxm ot jFaiti^. 

passed, the day is at hand, and with it will come the 
greater humanity, the universal brotherhood. 

The blessings of our God and our Father be with 
you, brethren from the East; the blessings of our 
Saviour, our elder brother, the teacher of the brother- 
hood of man, be with you and your peoples forever. 

I had rather be a doorkeeper in this 
f ^ ^ L 3JOtir0. open house of the Lord than to dwell in 
^*^ the tents of bigotry. I am sufficiently 

happy in the knowledge that I have been enabled to 
be to a certain extent the feet of this great triumph. 
I stand before you to-night with my brain badly 
addled, with my voice a good deal demoralized, with 
my heels somewhat blistered, but with my heart warm 
and loving and happy. 

I bid to you, the parting guests, the godspeed 
that comes out of a soul that is glad to recognize its 
kinship with all lands and with all religions; and 
when you go, you go not only leaving behind you in 
our hearts more hospitable thoughts for the faiths 
you represent, but also warm and loving ties that bind 
you into the union that will be our joy and our life 
forevermore. 

But I will not stand between you and your further 
pleasures, except to venture, in the presence of this 
vast and happy audience, a motion which I propose 
to repeat in the next hall; and, if both audiences 
approve, who dare say that the motion may not be 
realized? It has been often said, and I have been 
among those who have been saying it, that we have 
been witnessing h^re in these last seventeen days 



what will not be given men now living again to see. 
But as these meetings have grown in power and 
accumulative spirit I have felt my doubts give way, 
and already I see in vision the next Parliament of 
Religions more glorious and more hopeful than this. 
And I have sent my mind around the globe to find 
a fitting place for the next Parliament. When I 
looked upon these gentle brethren from Japan, I have 
imagined that away out there in the calms of the 
Pacific ocean we might in the City of Tokio meet 
again in some great Parliament. But I am not satis- 
fied to stop in that half-way land, and so I have 
thought we must go farther and meet in that great 
English dominion of India itself. 

At first I thought that Bombay might be a good 
place, or Calcutta a better place, but I have concluded 
to move that the next Parliament of Religion be held 
on the sacred banks of the Ganges in the ancient, new 
City of Benares,* where we can visit these brethren at 
their noblest headquarters. And when we go there 
we will do as they have done, leave our heavy bag- 
gage behind, go in light marching order, carrying 
only the working principles that are applicable in all 
lands. 

Now when shall that great Parliament meet? It 
used to take a long time to get around the world, but 
I believe that we are ready here to-night to move that 
we shall usher in the twentieth century with a great 
Parliament of Religions in Benares, and we shall make 
John Henry Barrows chairman of the American 
Committee. 

♦ See Appendix page 326 
20 



3o6 a atfjoxm ot jFaitf). 

The place which woman has taken in 
J^entOttn* the Parliament of Religions and in the 
Denominational Congresses is one of 
such great importance that it is entitled to your care- 
ful attention. 

As day by day the Parliament has presented the 
result of the preliminary work of two years, it may 
have appeared to you an easy thing to put into motion 
the forces of which this evening is the crowning 
achievement, but to bring about this result hundreds 
of men and women have labored. There are sixteen 
committees of women in the various departments 
represented in the Parliament of Religions and De- 
nominational Congresses, with a total membership of 
two hundred and twenty-eight. In many cases the 
men's and the women's committees have elected to 
work as one, and in others the women have held sepa- 
rated congresses. Sixteen women have spoken in the 
Parliament of Religions, and that more did not appear 
is due to the fact that the denominational committee 
had secured the most prominent women for their 
presentation. 

It is too soon to prognosticate woman's future in 
the churches. Hitherto she has been not the thinker, 
the formulator of creeds, but the silent worker. That 
day has passed; it remains for her to take her rightful 
position in the active government of the church, and 
to the question, if men will accord that position to 
her, my experience and that of the chairman of the 
women's committees warrants us in answering an 
emphatic Yes. Her future in the Western churches is 
in her own hands, and the men of the Ea,stern churches 



will be emboldened by the example of the Western to 
return to their country and bid our sisters of those 
distant lands to go and do likewise. 

Woman has taken very literally Christ's command 
to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, 
and to minister unto those who are in need of such 
ministrations. As her influence and power increase, 
so also will her zeal for good works. That the experi- 
ment of an equal presentation of men and women in 
a Parliament of Religions has not been a failure, I 
think can be proved by the part taken by the women 
who have had the honor of being called to participate 
in this great gathering. 

The past seventeen days have seemed 
(Ktf^diT^iti* to many of us the fulfillment of a dream; 
nay, the fulfillment of a long cherished 
prophecy. The seers of olden time foretold a day ^^^^^-r^*^^ 
when there should be concord, something like what 
we have seen among elements once discordant. 

We have heard of the fatherhood of God, the 
brotherhood of man, and the solidarity of the human 
race, until these great words ajid truths have pene- 
trated our minds and sunken into our hearts as never 
before. They will henceforth have larger meaning. 
No one of us all but has been intellectually strength- 
ened and spiritually uplifted. We have been sitting 
together upon the mountain of the Lord. We shall 
never descend to the lower places where our feet have 
sometimes trod in times past. I have tried, as I have 
listened to these masterly addresses to imagine what 
effect this comparative study of religions would have 



3o8 a atijoxm of dfaitl)* 

upon the religious world and upon individual souls 
that come directly under the sweep of its influence. 
It is not too much to hope that a great impulse has 
been given to the cause of religious unity and to 
pure and undefiled religion in all lands. 

We who welcomed, now speed the parting guests. 
We are glad you came, O wise men of the East, with 
your wise words, your large toleration, and your gentle 
ways! We have been glad to sit at your feet and learn 
of you in these things. We are glad to have seen 
you face to face, and we shall count you henceforth 
more than ever our friends and co-workers in the 
great things of religion. 

And we are glad, now that you are going to your 
far away homes, to tell the story of all that has been 
said and done here in this great Parliament, and that 
you will thus bring the Orient into nearer relations with 
the Occident, and make plain the sympathy which 
exists among all religions. We are glad for the words 
that have been spoken by the wise men and women 
of the West, who have come and given us their grains 
of gold after the washing. What I said in the begin- 
ning I will repeat now at the ending of this Parlia- 
ment. It has been the greatest gathering, in the name 
of religion, ever held on the face of this earth. 

We have come to the end of our delib- 

^ ^tltftt* erations, and are about to close one of the 

)u4i^*rM^ most historic meetings that has ever oc- 

^^4-^^ ■ curred among the children of men. It was my pleas- 
ure and privilege, at the meeting of the Parliament, 
to welcome the delegates from the different parts of 



k-C'^^w 



the world to this historic city. We have met daily, 
and have formed friendships, and I trust that they will 
be as strong as steel, as pure as gold, and as lasting as 
eternity. I have never seen so large a body of men 
meet together and discuss questions so vital with so 
little friction as I have seen during this Parliament. 
The watchword has been "Toleration and fraternity," 
and shows what may or can be done when men assem- 
ble in the proper spirit. 

There was some apprehension on the part of some 
Christians as to the wisdom of a Parliament of all the 
religions, but the result of this meeting vindicates the 
wisdom of such a gathering. It appears that the con- 
ception was a divine one rather than human. 

The ten commandments, the sermon on the mount, 
and the golden rule have not been superseded by any 
that has been presented by the various teachers of 
religion and philosophy, but our mountains are just as 
high and our doctrines are just as pure as before our 
meeting, and every man and woman has been con- 
firmed in the faith once delivered to the saints. 

Another good of this Convention: It has taught 
us that, while we have truth on our side, we have not 
had all the truth; while we have had theory, we have 
not had all the practice; and the strongest criticism we 
have received was not as to our doctrines or methods, 
but as to our practice not being in harmony with our 
own teachings and with our own doctrines. 

I believe that it will do good not only to the domi- 
nant race, but that to the race I represent it will be a 
godsend. From this meeting, we believe, will go forth 
a sentiment that will right a great many of our wrongs, 






310 a atlfioxm of jFaWj. 

and lighten up the dark places and assist in giving us 
that which we are now denied — the common privil- 
eges of humanity; for we find that in this Parliament 
the majority of the people represented are of the 
darker races, and this will teach the American people 
that color is not the standard of excellency, nor of 
degradation. But I trust that much good will come 
to all, and not only the fatherhood of God be acknowl- 
edged, but, also, the brotherhood of man. 

When in the midst of the wise men who 
WitSiXtt* were intrusted with the organizing of the 
Columbus celebration, Mr. Bonney rose up 
and said that man meant more than things, and pro- 
claimed the motto : " not things, but men," people said : 
"Why, that is only a commonplace. Any man could 
think that." " Yes," said Columbus, "any man could 
do that," when he put the egg upon its end. Mr. 
Bonney proclaimed that motto. May it make him 
immortal. 

When the invitation to this Parliament was sent to 
the old Catholic church and she was asked if she 
would come here, people said: "Will she come?" 
And the old Catholic church said: " Who has as good 
a right to come to a Parliament of all the religions of 
the world as the old Catholic Universal church?" 
Then people said: " But if the Catholic church comes 
here, will she find anybody else here? " And the old 
church said: " Even if she has to stand alone on that 
platform, she will stand on it." 

And the old church has come here, and she is re- 
joiced to meet her fellow-men, her fellow-believers, 



her fellow-lovers of every shade of humanity and 
every shade of creed. She is rejoiced to meet here 
the representatives of the old religions of the world, 
and she says to them: "We leave here. We will go 
to our homes. We will go to the olden ways." 
Friends, will we not look back to this scene of union 
and weep because separation still continues? But 
will we not pray that there may have been planted 
here a seed that will grow to union wide and perfect? 
Oh, friends, let us pray for this. It is better for us 
to be one. If it were not better for us to be one than 
to be divided, our Lord and God would not have 
prayed to his Father that we might all be one as he and 
the Father are one. Oh, let us pray for unity, and 
taking up the glorious strains we have listened to to- 
night, let us, morning, noon, and night cry out: 
"Lead, kindly light; lead from all gloom; lead from 
all darkness; lead from all imperfect light of human 
opinion; lead to the fullness of the light." 

Our hopes have been more than real- 
^EttOh)0. ized. The sentiment which has inspired 
this Parliament has held us together. 
The principles in accord with which this historic con- 
vention has proceeded have been put to the test, and 
even strained at times, but they have not been inade- 
quate. Toleration, brotherly kindness, trust in each 
others sincerity, a candid and earnest seeking after 
the unities of religion, the honest purpose of each to 
set forth his own faith without compromise and with- 
out unfriendly criticism — these principles, thanks to 
your loyalty and courage, have not been found wanting. 



J^^-^-fciA- 



3t2 ^ atiioxm D( Jfaitib- 

Men of Asia and Europe, we have been made glad 
by your coming, and I have been made wiser. I am 
happy that you have enjoyed our hospitalities. While 
floating one evening over the illumined waters of the 
" White City," Mr. Dharmapala said, with that smile 
which has won our hearts, " All the joys of heaven are 
in Chicago," and Dr. Momerie, with a characteristic 
mingling of enthusiasm and skepticism, replied: "I 
wish I were sure that all the joys of Chicago are to be 
in heaven." But surely there will be a multitude there 
that no man can number, out of every kindred and 
people and tongue, and in that perpetual parliament 
on high the people of God will be satisfied. 

Seventeen days ago there dawned in many hearts 
anewworld-consciousness, a sense of universal brother- 
hood; and to this fact in part, I attribute it that this 
Parliament of all the faiths has been marked by less 
acrimonious discussion, although we have been sep- 
arated by immense doctrinal distances, than is often 
found in a single meeting of Christians bearing the 
same doctrinal name. 

Now that the Parliament is over we almost wonder 
why it was not called earlier in human history. When 
the general committee discovered that a wondrous 
response followed their first appeals, that they struck 
a chord of universal sympathy, they were firm in their 
determination to go forward, in spite of ten thousand 
obstacles, and to do what so many feared was imprac- 
ticable. 

I thank God for these friendships which we have 
knit with men and women beyond the sea, and I thank 
you for your sympathy and over-generous apprecia 



tion and for the constant help which you have 
furnished in the midst of my multiplied duties. 
Christian America sends her greetings through you to 
all mankind. We cherish a broadened sympathy, a 
higher respect, a truer tenderness to the children of 
our common Father in all lands, and, as the story of 
this Parliament is read in the cloisters of Japan, by 
the rivers of Southern Asia, amid the universities of 
Europe, and in the isles of all the seas, it is my prayer 
that non-Christian readers may, in some measure, dis- 
cover what has been the source and strength of that 
faith in divine fatherhood and human brotherhood 
which, embodied in an Asiatic peasant who was the 
son of God and made divinely potent through him, is 
clasping the globe with bands of heavenly light. 

As Sir Joshua Reynolds closed his lectures on 
"The Art of Painting" with the name of Michael 
Angelo, so, with a deeper reverence, I desire that the 
last words which I speak to this Parliament shall be 
the name of him to whom I owe life and truth and 
hope and all things, who reconciles all contradictions, 
pacifies all antagonisms, and who, from the throne of 
his heavenly kingdom, directs the serene and un- 
wearied omnipotence of redeeming love — Jesus Christ, 
the saviour of the world. 

Worshipers of God and Lovers of >->v*>e<^«*v^ 
ISoitn^P. Man : — The closing words of this great 
event must now be spoken. With inex- 
pressible joy and gratitude I give them utterance. 
The wonderful success of this first actual Parliament of 
the religions of the world is the realization of a con- 
viction which held my heart for many years. 



3M a ®i)(itug of dFaitl). 

What men deemed impossible, God has finally 
wrought. The religions of the world have actually- 
met in a great and imposing assembly ; they have 
conferred together on the vital questions of life and 
immortality in a frank and friendly spirit, and now 
they part in peace with many warm expressions of 
mutual affection and respect. 

The laws of the congress forbidding controversy 
or attack have, on the whole, been wonderfully 
observed. The exceptions are so few that they may 
well be expunged from the record and from the 
memory. They even served the useful purpose of 
timely warnings against the tendency to indulge in 
intellectual conflict. If an unkind hand threw a fire- 
brand into the assembly, let us be thankful that a 
kinder hand plunged it in the waters of forgiveness 
and quenched its flames. 

If some western warrior, forgetting for the moment 
that this was a friendly conference and not a battle- 
field, uttered his war cry, let us rejoice, with our Orient 
friends, that a kinder spirit answered : " Father for- 
give them, for they know not what they say." 

No system of faith or worship has been compro- 
mised by this friendly conference; no apostle of any 
religion has been placed in a false position by any act 
of this congress. The knowledge here acquired will 
be carried by those who have gained it as precious 
treasure to their respective countries, and will there, 
in freedom and according to reason, be considered, 
judged, and applied as they shall deem right. 

The influence which this congress of the religions 
of the world will exert on the peace and the prosper- 



ity of the world is beyond the power of human lan- 
guage to describe. For this influence, borne by those 
who have attended the sessions of the Parliament of 
Religions to all parts of the world, will affect in some 
important degree all races of men, all forms of religion, 
and even all governments and social institutions. 

And now farewell! A thousand congratulations 
and thanks for the co-operation and aid of all who 
have contributed to the glorious results which we cel- 
ebrate this night. Henceforth the religions of the 
world will make war, not on each other, but on the 
giant evils that afflict mankind. Henceforth let all 
throughout the world who worship God and love their 
fellow-men join in the anthem of the angels : 

Glory to God in the Highest! 

Peace on earth, good-will among menl 



APPENDIX, 



3«7 



APPENDIX. 



ri&^^f-r*-M 



A. 

From the First Circular Letter Sent out by the 

General Committee on a Parliament of Religions 

Appointed by the World's Columbian Auxiliary. Y^^^Ub^i* 

I 
Since the World's Fair stands for the world's progress in 

civilization, it is important that the creative and regulative power 
of Religion as a prime factor and force in human development, 
should receive due prominence. The Committee having charge 
of the Religious Congresses seek the cooperation of the repre- 
sentatives of all Faiths. Now that the nations are being brought 
into closer and friendlier relations with each other, the time is 
apparently ripe for new manifestations and developments of relig- 
ious fraternity. Humanity, though sundered by oceans and lan- 
guages and widely differing forms of Religion, is yet one in need, 
if not altogether in hope. The literatures and the results of the 
great historic Faiths are more and more studied in the spirit 
which would employ only the agencies of light and love. It 
is not the purpose of these Conventions to create the temper 
of indifferentism in regard to the important peculiarities dis- 
tinguishing the Religions of the world, but rather to bring 
together, in frank and friendly conference, the most eminent men 
of different Faiths, strong in their personal convictions, who will 
strive to see and show what are the supreme truths, and what 
light Religion has to throw on the great problems of our age. We 
are confident that it may be made illustrious as a representative 
gathering of men united for the attainment of great moral ends. 

Believing that God is, and that he has not left himself with- 
out witness; believing that the influence of Religion tends to 
advance the general welfare, and is the most vital force in the 
social order of every people; and convinced that of a truth God is 

319 



320 a (t\ioxm of jFait]^. 

no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that feareth 
him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him, we affection- 
ately invite the representatives of all Faiths to aid us in present- 
ing to the world, at the Exposition of 1893, the religious harmonies 
and unities of humanity, and also in showing forth the moral and 
spiritual agencies which are at the root of human progress. It is 
proposed to consider the foundations of religious Faith ; to review 
the triumphs of Religion in all ages ; to set forth the present state 
of Religion among the nations and its influence over literature, 
art, commerce, government, and the family life ; to indicate its 
power in promoting temperance and social purity, and its har- 
mony with true science ; to show its dominance in the higher insti- 
tutions of learning ; to make prominent the value of the weekly 
rest-day on religious and other grounds; and to contribute to 
those forces which shall bring about the unity of the race in the 
worship of God and the service of man. Let representatives from 
every part of the globe be interrogated and bidden to declare what 
they have to offer or suggest for the world's betterment ; what 
light Religion has to throw on the labor problems, the educational 
questions, and the perplexing social conditions of our time ; and 
what illumination it can give to the subjects of vital interest that 
come before the other Congresses of 1893. 



B. 

Notable Objections to the Parliament.* 

I. 

A letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Addington Park, Croyton, April 26, 1893. 

My Dear Sir: — I am afraid that I cannot write the letter 
which, in yours of March 20th, you wished me to write, expressing 
the importance of the proposed conference, without its appearing 
to be an approval of the scheme. The difficulties which I myself 
feel are not distance and convenience, but rest on the fact that the 
Christian Religion is the one religion. I do not understand how 

♦See page 17. 



that Religion can be regarded as a member of a Parliament of Re- 
ligions without assuming the equality of the other intended mem- 
bers and the parity of their position and claims. Then again, 
your general program assumes that the Church of Rome is a 
Catholic church, and treats the Protestant Episcopal Church of 
America as outside of the Catholic church. I presume that the 
Church of England would be similarly classified; and that view of 
our position is untenable. Beyond this, while I quite understand 
how the Christian Religion might produce its evidences before 
any assembly, a " presentation " of that religion must go far be- 
yond the question of evidences, and must subject to public discus- 
sion that faith and devotion which are its characteristics, and 
which belong to a religion too sacred for such treatment. I hope 
that this explanation will excuse me with you for not complying 
with your request. I have the honor to be, with the highest re- 
spect, your very faithful servant, Ed. Cantuar. 
To the Rev. John H. Barrows, D. D. 

II. 

Extract from an address by Joseph Cook, at the Parliament. 

On the faces of this polyglot international audience I seem to 
see written, as I once saw chiseled on the marble above the tomb 
of the great Emperor Akkabar, in the land of the Ganges, the 
hundred names of God. 

Let us beware how we lightly assert that we are glad that those 
names are one. How many of us are ready for immediate, total, 
irreversible self -surrender to God as both Saviour and Lord? Only 
such of us as are thus ready can call ourselves in any deep sense 
religious. 

The world expects to hear from us this afternoon no drivel, 
but something fit to be professed face to face with the crackling 
artillery of the science of our time. I know I am going hence, 
and I know I wish to go in peace. Now, I hold that it is a cer- 
tainty, and a certainty founded on truth absolutely self-evident, 
that there are three things from which I can never escape — my 
conscience, my God, and my record of sin in an irreversible past. 
How am I to be harmonized with that unescapeable environment? 
Here is Lady Macbeth. See how she rubs her hands; 
21 



{". 



322 a ort^rujei of JFaitf). 

"Out, damned spot! Will these hands ne'er be clean? 
All the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten this little hand." 

and her husband in a similar mood says: 

"This red right hand, it would the multitudinous seas incarna- 
dine, making the green one red." 

What religion can wash Lady Macbeth's red right hand? That 
is a question I propose to the four continents and all the isles of 
the sea. Unless you can answer that, you have not come here 
with a serious purpose to a parliament of religions. I speak now 
to the branch of those sceptics which are not represented here, 
and I ask, who can wash Lady Macbeth's red right hand? and 
their silence or their responses are as inefficient as a fishing rod 
would be to span this vast lake or the Atlantic. 

I turn to Mohammedanism. Can you wash our red right hands? 
I turn to Confucianism and Buddhism. Can you wash our red 
right hands? So help me God, I mean to ask a question this 
afternoon that shall go in some hearts across the seas and to the 
antipodes, and I ask it in the name of what I hold to be abso- 
lutely self-evident truths, that unless a man is washed from the old 
sin and the guilt of mankind, he cannot be at peace in the pres- 
ence of infinite holiness. 

Old and blind Michael Angelo in the Vatican used to go to 
the Torso, so-called, a fragment of the art of antiquity, and he 
would feel along the marvelous lines chiseled in bygone ages and 
tell his pupils that thus and thus the study should be completed. 
I turn to every faith on earth except Christianity and I find every 
such faith a Torso. I beg pardon. The occasion is too grave for 
mere courtesy and nothing else. Some of the faiths of the world 
are marvelous as far as they go, but if they were completed along 
the lines of the certainties of the religions themselves they would 
go up and up and up to an assertion of the necessity of the new 
purpose to deliver the soul from a life of sin and of atonement, 
made of God's grace, to deliver the soul from guilt. 

Take the ideas which have produced the Torsos of the earthly 
faiths and you will have a universal religion, under some of the 
names of God, and it will be a harmonious outline with Christian- 
ity. There is no peace anywhere in the universe for a soul with 
bad intentions, and there ought not to be. Ours is a ttansitiotial 



^ppentiix. 323 

age, and we are told we are all sons of God ; and so we are in a 
natural sense, but not in a moral sense. We are all capable of 
changing eyes with God, and until we do change eyes with him 
it is impossible for us to face him in peace. No transition in life 
or death or beyond death will ever deliver us from the necessity 
of good intentions to the peace of the soul with its environments, 
nor from exposure to penalty for deliberately bad intentions. I 
hold that we not only cannot escape from conscience and God 
and our record of sins, but that it is a certainty and a strategic cer- 
tainty that, except Christianity, there is no religion under heaven or 
among men that effectively provides for the peace of the soul by 
its harmonization with this environment. 

III. 

From an address by Rev. A. Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of the Diocese 
of Western New York, delivered at the Church of the Epiphany. 

While we in our humble endeavors are here engaged in pray- 
ing for the extension of the kingdom of Christ, we should not over- 
look the remarkable fact that far to the West of us the Gentiles 
have recently converged from the four quarters of the globe, bring- 
ing heathenism to our own doors. The " Parliament of Religions," 
so-called, which has just terminated at Chicago, seems to have 
brought together the elements which were parted at Babel, for a 
babble in our own land about the respective unbeliefs which they 
represent. What should we think of it? It has a threefold 
aspect in my view and practically there are three opinions about 
it, based on this fact. First in the unreflecting, superficial and 
merely popular aspect it is a great "Feast of Humanity ;" the 
rather to be admired because professed Christians meet the heathen, 
not only with brotherly hand-shaking, as they should, but with a 
tacit concession, for the time at least, that Christianity has no 
character superior to the orgies of idolatry or the claims of 
the Koran or the Shasta. Second, the part which Christians have 
consented to take in such an assembly is a subject of momentous 
interest ; therefore, whether we are prepared to approve their con- 
duct or to regard it as a compromise with the powers of darkness 
and a surrender of the positions taken by the apostle and hitherto 
maintained by the Apostolic Church, as inseparable from its great 



324 a atijoxm of dFaitf). 

commission to " go and teach all nations." Third, the remaining 
aspect which it presents to all who have minds capable of due reflec- 
tion and hearts commensurately enlarged or warmed by the love of 
souls for whom Christ died, is to my mind that which Providence 
has designed to bring it before our thought and consciences as one 
of the most serious events of the kind in the history of humanity 
since the Wise Men from the East came to the cradle of Bethle- 
hem. 

♦ * 9ic ♦ lie 9ic 4: 

To my own heart the saddest view of the matter is that which 
arises, before the thoughtful mind, even when we banish the far- 
cical aspects with which the crowd delights to invest it ; hailing it 
is a proclamation that all religions are equally worthy of respect, 
or all equally contemptible. But a sober estimate of this gather- 
ing of the Gentiles, transfers to us Christians all the responsibility 
for what is ludicrous, and what is painful in the facts. Think of 
a solemn conflux of the heathen to our shores, which we are about 
to send back no wiser than when they came. Rather, they feel 
assured that Christians have consented to give up their assertion 
of any superior claim to Divine Revelation. Think of the earnest 
and clever heathen who, coming to us at this epoch, have been 
confronted by a divided Christianity, a Babel of religions or sects 
all in conflict, one with another ! All agreeing to tell them 
nothing definite as to the Christian faith; all permitting the 
Gospel Message to be mute ; all impressing them with the natural 
idea that Christians have no agreement as to what the Gospel 
Message is ; in other words, that Christianity is effete ; a failure ; 
an uncertain sound; a surrender of Christ to be crucified afresh; as 
neither the Son of God dying for a fallen race, nor risen again 
that all men should believe. 

But, I am sure the intentions of those who devised this " Parlia- 
ment " were pure, and I think it will be over-ruled for good. I 
was honored with a polite invitation, at the first broaching of the 
scheme, to become one of the " Advisory Council ; " for reasons I 
have suggested I was forced to decline. But I think it will 
awaken American Christians to new views of the Gentile World, 
"lying in the wicked one," as St. John puts it; and to the great 
truth embodied in words of our Divine Lord himself— that, the 



appendix. 325 

Gospel was not committed to a divided and distracted mass of 
individuals, but to a united and solidified church, with one Lord, 
one Faith, one Baptism, so that the world will not believe the 
Great Mission of the Son of God till they are all one, in unity like 
that of the Father and the Son. This " Parliament," therefore, 
has preached the most solemn charge to all true believers, that 
has ever been heard among us, for a return to the Primitive Unity 
of Christians, as a condition precedent to the conversion of the 
world. How touching the spectacle of the Gentile World that 
has been set before us ; the barrenness of their ideas, the darkness, 
which they inflict on millions of mankind, and their melancholy 
disposition to hug their chains and to be slaves forever ; as it is 
written : " If then the light that is in them be darkness, how great 
is that darkness." 

Among these strange men that have come among us, are some 
that seek the Light, and have been led, I cannot doubt, by the 
Star of Bethlehem. I name that interesting son of India, 
Mozoomdar, whose " Oriental Christ " is one of the most touching 
histories of a soul struggling homeward to its God and Savior 
that is to be found in literature. That book is what I should 
have quoted to the Asiatics, had I taken part in this babble of 
nations. As a Catholic Christian and a successor of the Apostles, 
I could not have forgotten my commission, nor could I have com- 
promised it by ambiguous words. My Master says of Confucius 
and of Buddha — " they are thieves and robbers ; " that is, how- 
ever conscientious and virtuous they may have been as poor 
benighted Gentiles, they have robbed him of millions of souls who 
should have been sheep of his pasture. They have robbed those 
souls of the only light that is the light of truth ; the only true 
light that is the "life of man," the only true "Light of the 
World." Oh ! that I might have been permitted to speak to 
these dear souls, redeemed by the Blood of the Cross, as the 
Apostles would have spoken : " Sirs, why do ye these things ? 
We preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto 
the Living God. The times of your ignorance God winked at, 
but now commandeth all men, everywhere to repent. Behold the 
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World." 



326 a ^^oxm ot jFaitib, 

c. 

Shall we have the Second Parliament at Benares? 

[The followiug letter written in mid-ocean will explain itself. The sugges- 
CilL^ I tion referred to will be found on page 305 of this book. — Editor.] 

Pacific Ocean, Oceanica, October 24, 1893. 

My Dear Brother Jones : — This is what I have entered in 
my diary on the 3d of October. " I will help Bro. Jones to carry 
out his object to hold the Parliament of Religions in Benares. I 
will revisit America two years after. I will prepare the way for 
the Benares Congress. The first Parliament was held in the 
youngest city and the first in the twentieth century will be held in 
oldest city. The Maharajah of Benares will be asked to become 
the patron." 

On the 1 2th inst., I made the following entry: "I will work 
hard to make the second Parliament of Religions a success. Bro. 
Jones and Pipe, I hope, will work hard to make it so. Maharajah 
of Benares and Norendro Nath Sen must be asked to give their 
services. The Theosophical Society must cooperate with the com- 
mittee. We will succeed. Liberty loving religion will triumph, 
Sarnath (in Benares) is the best place to build the hall. Let the 
Buddhist government be asked to cooperate." 

The editor of the Hindu, Madras, Mr. Norendro Nath Sen, 
editor of the Indian Mirror, Calcutta, are leading Hindus whose 
cooperations are necessary. 1 hope you will send report of the 
Parliament's work to the Maharajah of Benares, India. We have 
seven years before us. Let us lead pure lives, and work, and we 
shall succeed. Peace and blessings to you. Yours ever, 

H. Dharmapala. 



IN MEMORIAM. 



No more touching word was spoken on the Parliament of 
Religions than that which came from the venerable Dr. Philip 
ScHAFF. Subsequent history proved that his physician's predic- 
tions were all too true ; for soon after his return to his home in 
New York the voice that had plead so often for unity, the brain 
that had planned so long for religious harmony and cooperation, 
enforcing the same by the arguments of ripened scholarship, 
ceased their labors in death. But the Doctor was right also. It 
was a noble cause to die for. The testimony was worth the price. 
We find no more fitting words with which to close this volume of 
selections, compiled in the interests of religious unity, than the 
brief address, uttered in physical weakness, by this loved teacher. 
We use them, believing that we do no violence to Professor 
Schaff's spirit, nor even to his logic, when carried to its final con- 
clusion, by suggesting that the reader should mentally substitute 
the word religion for the word Christian, and enlarge the Doctor's 
thought of Christ to include all Christly souls ; for it is the Jesus 
spirit of love and service, of man-helping and truth-seeking devo- 
tion, not his personality, that is to redeem mankind and bring the 
kingdom of peace and good-will on earth. 

This is short notice to speak to be given to one 
. who has just risen fro jh the dead. A little more 
than a year ago I was struck down by apoplexy; 
but I have recovered, through the mercy of God, 
and I am a miracle to 77iyself. I was warned by 
physicians and friends not to come to Chicago. 
They said it would kill me. Well, let it kill me. 
I was determined to bear my last dying testimony 
to the cause of Christian Union, in which I have 
been interested all my life. But I think the Lord 
will give me strength to survive this Parliament 
of Religions. The idea of this Parliament 7vill 
survive all criticism. The critics will die, but 
the cause will remain. And as sure as God is 
the Truth, and as sure as Christ is the Way and 
the Truth and the Life, his Word shall be ful- 
filled, and there shall be one flock and one Shep- 
herd. 

327 



UNITY. 

The sight of nations crossing seas 

To sing the songs of God, — 

To lift loud-sounding symphonies 

In man's New World abode, 

What cheer to faith 

The vision hath ! 

They come from all the northern zones, 

•' From India's coral strands ;" 
The distant islands lend their tones 
And every southern land. 
Joy to the earth, 
' Tis Hope's new-birth ! 

Hand reaches hand, heart beats to heart, 

Man's kinship is confessed : 
Nor race, nor name shall e'er dispart 
This unity so blest. 

For love makes one. 
And hate is gone ! 

— John Calvin Learned, 
St. Louis, Mo. 



Mr. Learned was another of the prophetic souls who saw the bright promise 
of a larger faith in the Parliament of Religions, and who has left the unrealized 
ideal for others to work out. After his death, which occurred on the 8th day of 
December, his family found the above lines folded away in his pocket-book. 
With loving remembrance of loyal comradeship, the editor is glad to close this 
Chorus of Faith with this Postlude from one who went out of this world sing- 
ing of the brighter day to come. 



INDEX. 



329 






l..dx 



.'s^ 






INDEX. 



Abbott, Rev. Lyman, D.D., Congregationalist, Editor of the Outlook, 

New York, 223 

Alger, Rev. William R., Unitarian, Boston, ...... 216 

Amett, Bishop B. W., D.D., African Methodist Episcopal Church, 62, 208, 308 
Barrows, Rev. John Henry, D.D., Presbyterian, Chairman of the General 

Committee of Parliament of Religions, Chicago, - - 30, 95, 311, 319 
Bergen, Dr. Carl Von, Independent Lutheran, Stockholm, Sweden, • 55 

Berkowitz, Rev. Henry, D.D., Jewish, Philadelphia, Pa., ... 131 

Bernstorff, Count A., Evangelical, Berlin, 48 

Blackwell, Rev. Antoinette B., Unitarian, Elizabeth, N. J. - - 273 

Bonney, Hon. C. C, President of the World's Congress Auxiliary, Sweden- 

borgian, Chicago, 26, 313 

Bonet- Maury, Prof. G., Liberal Protestant, Paris, France, ... 168 
Boardman, Rev. George Dana, Baptist, Philadelphia, Pa., - - 85,301 
Brjggs, Rev. Charles A., Presbyterian, New York, .... u^ 

Bristol, Rev. Frank, Methodist, Chicago, ...... 303 

Brodbeck, Dr. Adolf, Idealist, Hanover, Germany, • • - 81, 218 

Brown, Rev. Olympia, Universalist, Racine, Wis., ... - jj^ 

Browning, Robert, Poem, .-._-.... 244 

Bruce, Prof. A. B., D.D., Glasgow, --....- 217 

Byrne, Very Rev. William, D.D., Catholic, Cincinnati, .... 239 

Candlin, Rev. George T., Missionary, Tientsin, China. - • 265, 296 

Canterbury, Archbishop of, -- 320 

Carpenter, Prof. J. Estlin, Unitarian, Oxford, England, - • • • 103 
Carus, Dr. Paul, Editor Open Court, Chicago, - - . . . iq8 

Chakravarti, Prof. C. N. Theosophist, India, • • • • • 48 

Chant, Mrs. L. Ormiston, Unitarian, London, ..... yg 

Chapin, Rev. Augusta J., Universalist, Chicago, ..... 35,307 

Chatschumyan, Mr. Ohannes, Armenia, ....... jgg 

Chudhadham, H.R.H. Prince Chandradat, Buddhist, Siiun, • - 144 

Cleary, Rev. J. M., Roman Catholic, Minneapolis, - - • - 260 

Cook, Rev. Joseph, Congregationalist, Boston, - . . . . 227, 321 

Coxe, Bishop A. C, Episcopalian, New York City, .... 323 

Dawson, Sir William, F.R.S., Montreal, 237 

Devine, Rev. James S., Roman Catholic, New York City, - - - 72 
Dharmapala, H., Buddhist, Ceylon, - - 53, 90, 219, 226, 257, 295, 326 

D'Harlez, Mgr. C, Roman Catholic, University of Louvain, Belgium, 202 

"Douglas, Hon. Frederick, Washington, D. C. 170 

•^Drummond, Prof. Henry, Glasgow. - . - - - " - - loi, aio 
Dvivedi Manilal Ni, Bombay, ........ 230 

331 



332 iribtx. 



^ Ely, Prof. Richard T. University Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. - - 142 

Elliott, Rev. Walter, Roman Catholic, Paulist Convent, New York City, 195 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Poem, 100 

■^ Faber, Dr. Ernst, Shanghai, --.---..- m 
Feehan, Archbishop, Roman Catholic, Chicago, - . - - - 32 

Field, Dr. Henry, of the New York Evangelist, 178 

Fisher, Prof. George Park, Yale University, Hartford, Conn., - - 200 

Fletcher, Miss Alice, Cambridge, Mass., ...... jj^ 

Gannett, W. C, Poem, Rochester, N. Y. - - ... 10 

Ghandi, Virchand R., B. A., Jain, Bombay, India, - 55, 123, 203, zqg 

Gibbons, Cardinal, Roman Catholic, Baltimore, - ■ - 33, 145, 168 

Gladden, Rev. Washington, D.D., Congregationalist, Columbus, O., - 148 
Gmiener, Rev. John, Roman Catholic, St. Paul, .... 278 

Goodspeed, Prof. C. S., Baptist, Professor in University of Chicago, - 236 
Gottheil, Rabbi G., Jewish, New York, -..--. 67 

— Grant, (Bey) J.A.S., Cairo, Egypt, 58 

Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, Unitarian, Boston, .... 263 

Harris, Dr. W. T., United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, 240 
Haweis, Rev. H. R., D.D., Episcopalian, London, .... 153 

^—Henderson, Prof. C. R., D.D., Professor in University of Chieago, - 135 
Henrotin, Mrs. Ellen, Chicago, _.------ 306 

Hewitt, Very Rev. August F., Roman Catholic, New York, - - - 240 
-I « Higinbotham, Hon. H. N., President World's Columbian Exposition, 

Chicago, 37 

- Higginson, Col. Thomas Wentworth, Cambridge, Mass. - - 146, 172, 268 
Hirai, Kinza Riuge M., Buddhist, Kyoto, Japan ,- - - - 133, 261, 292 

Hirsch, Dr, E. G., Jewish, Chicago, 219,245,301 

Ho, Kung Hsien, Shanghai, China, ....... 1^6 

Horiuchi, Secretary of the Indo Busseki Kofuka Society of Tokio, - - 79 

Hosmer, F. L,, Poem, Chicago, - 222 

Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, Unitarian, Boston, ------ 269 

Hugenholtz, Rev. F. W. N , Unitarian, Grand Rapids, Mich. - - 275 

Hultin, Rev. Ida C, Unitarian, Moline, 111. ...... 150 

Hunt, Leigh, Poem, -__.- 126 

Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, Editor of Unity and Secretary of the General 
Committee, Chicago, - - - - - - - - 11, 304 

Keane, Rt. Rev. John J., D.D., LL.D., Roman Catholic, Washington, 177, 310 
Kiretchjian, Herant M., Constantinople, ------- 198 

Kohler, Dr. K., Jewish, New York, - - 108 

Kohut, Dr. Alexander, Jewish, New York, __.-__ 274 
Latas, Most Rev. Dionysios, The Archbishop of Zante, Greek Catholic, 
Greece, ____---_--- 38, 170 

Lazarus, Miss Josephine, Jewish, New York, ------ 164 

Learned, John C, Poem, _--_---.- 328 
Lewis, Rev. A. H., D.D., Seventh Day Baptist, Plainfield, N. J. - - 204 
Longfellow, Samuel, Poem, ._----.. 66 

Lorimer, Rev. George C, Baptist, Boston, - - . _ _ . 209 
Lyon, D, G., Professor of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. - 116 



intatx. 333 



Massaquoi, Prince Momolu, Representative of the Christian Missions, Vey 

Territory, Africa, ---------- 300 

Mendes, Rev, H. Pereira, Jewish, New York, ----- 82, 117 

Mercer, Rev. L. P., Swedenborgian, Chicago, ----- 73 

Momerie, Dr. Alfred Williams, Episcopalian, London, - 60, 127, 231, 286 

Morris Lewis, Poem, ---------- 162 

Mozoomdar, Protab Chunder, Brahmo-Somaj, Calcutta, India, 40, 252, 288 

Munger, Rev. Theodore T., D.D., Congregational ist, New Haven, Conn. 119 
Murdock, Rev. Marion, Unitarian, Cleveland, O. ----- 267 

Nagarkar, Rev, B. B., Brahmo-Somaj, Bombay, India, 42, 74, 182, 228, 272 

Niccolls, Rev. S. J., D.D., Presbyterian, St. Louis, _ _ - _ 230 

Noguchi, Zenshiro, Buddhist, Japan, 71 

O'Gorman, Prof. Thomas, Catholic University of America, Washington, 

D. C, ISO 

Peabody, Rev. F. G., Unitarian, Professor in Harvard University, - 187 

Powell, Aaron M., Quaker, New York, 155 

Redwood, Most Rev. Archbishop, Roman Catholic, Australia, - ■ Si 

Rexford, Rev. E. L., D.D., Universalist, Boston, - - - - 83, 183 
Schaff, Dr. Philip, Christian Unity, New York, .... 277, 327 

Scovell, President, Wooster University, Ohio, 229 

Soyen, Shaku, Buddhist, Japan, 84, 139 

Shibata, Rt. Rev. Reuchi, Shinto Priest, Japan, - - 41, 149, 176, 294 
Small, Rev. A. W,, Ph.D., Baptist, Professor in Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, 158 
Snell, Merwin-Marie, Washington, D. C, . - - - . 186, 231 
Sorabji, Miss Jeanne, Episcopalian, Poona, India, ----- 59 
Spencer, Rev. Anna Garlin, Unitarian, Providence, R. I., - - - 180 
Stanton, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady, Mew York, . _ . . . 205, 276 
Sunderland, Mrs. Eliza R., Unitarian, Ann Arbor, Mich., ... 136 ^ 
. Tcheraz, Prof. Minas, Editor of ^r/^^w/a, London, - - - - 56,268 — 
Terry, Prof. Milton S,, Methodist, Prof. Northwestern University, Evans- 
ton, III., 118 

-Tide, Prof. C. P., Leyden University, ng 

Toki, Horin, Buddhist Priest, Japan, - 87 

Tomlins, Prof. W. L., Teacher of Singing, Chicago, 214 

-*Toy, C. H., Professor in Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., - - 140 
Vivekananda, Swami, Hindu Monk, Calcutta, India, - 56, 163, 193, 280, 297 
Warren, Rev. Samuel N., Swedenborgian, Cambridge, Mass., - - 196 

Wasson, David A., Poem, iq2 

Washburn, George, D.D., President of Roberts College, Constantinople, 273 
Webb, M'd Alexander Russell, Editor Moslem World, New York, 72, 176, 241 
Whittier, John G., Poem, .-...---. 24 

Whitman, Walt, Poem, .....284 

Willard, Miss Frances, Pres. W. C. T. U., Chicago, .... 279 

Williams, Mrs. Fannie Barrier, Unitarian, Chicago, .... 258 

Wise, Dr. Isaac M., Jewish, Cincinnati, 169 

— Wolkonsky, Prince Serge, St. Petersburgh, Russia, - - 43, 132, 166, 291 ^ X« L '^ * 
Woolley, Rev. Celia Parker, Unitarian, Geneva, 111., .... 254 
Yu, Hon. Pung Quang, Secretary of the Chinese Legation in Washington, 47, 293 



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